


Unexpected Aftermath

by EvilFuzzy9



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Badass Sokka, Eventual Romance, F/F, F/M, Fluff, For Want of a Nail, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, Memetic Mutation, Mild Angst, Mild Language, My First Finished Fic in Six Years, OT3, Perceived Badass at Least, Post-Series, Teen Romance, What-If
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-21
Updated: 2015-02-21
Packaged: 2018-03-14 09:47:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 79,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3406118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvilFuzzy9/pseuds/EvilFuzzy9
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It all started with a rotten egg... or was it a butterfly? A horseshoe nail? </p><p>...Well, something like that, at any rate. But regardless of how it all started, things have kinda snowballed out of control, and now Sokka just wants the world to start making sense again. </p><p>Toph x Sokka x Suki (Tukka) [OT3, fluff, humor, angst, romance]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A Seed is Planted

**Author's Note:**

> This is no longer the biggest or most ambitious thing I've done, but at the time this fic was probably the most successful story I'd written in ages, and the first one I'd finished since my very earliest years on FFN. 
> 
> For reference, I completed this story around one-and-a-third years ago, on the first of October 2013 -- nearly a full month before even starting A Lewd New World. I began it a bit over one and a half years ago, and finished the whole thing in under three months. It seems like small-time work to me, now, but at the time it felt like a big deal, and I was very enthusiastic to write it.
> 
> It's maybe a bit dated in quality, compared to my more recent fics, but I still hope y'all can enjoy it for what it is: an attempt by a Tokka fan at reconciling the apparent canonicity of Sukka with his personal A:tLA OTP.

It was almost funny, how the tiniest, most insignificant events could so drastically alter the course of history. A kingdom could fall for want of a single horseshoe nail. A butterfly flapping its wings could result in a hurricane on the other side of the world. A twelve year old boy running away from home could turn the destiny of the world upside down.

Fortune was fickle mistress, and Fate a hell of gambler. Whether the outcome of random chance, or a preordained sequence of events, you never knew how things would turn out until it was all over.

Even the smallest differences can change everything. And for Sokka, that difference - his butterfly, his horseshoe nail, whatever you wanted to call it - was a single rotten egg.

Our story starts with a young man of about twenty-three years of age. He was Fire Nation, born and bred, as loyal to his government as any mainlander. He was a rather plain fellow, if easy enough on the eyes, according to his girlfriend. He was the third son of a reasonably well-to-do family, merchants of middling status with a couple of business partners in the Colonies. Nothing major, but enough that his parents were able to send him and his siblings to a decently accredited boarding school with a good - if unremarkable - history.

This young man's name was Lee. A very generic name, perhaps, but fitting for an admittedly generic guy. He had graduated school with overall passable grades - although his marks in the practical sciences had been good enough to catch the eye of the Fire Nation Army Engineer Corps - and he was dating a pretty enough young woman of similarly modest standing and talent. They had been going steady for a bit over a year and half by now, and she had moved in with him a few months ago, to the tepid disapproval of both parties' parents.

By all accounts, Lee was a more or less completely average guy, another face in the crowd. In the grand scheme of things he was not at all important. Nor was he the sharpest arrow in the quiver, honestly. Not by a long shot. Oh, he was a good enough engineer, but Lee was rather lacking in common sense. He was also bit of a slob, and an incurable gossip.

Now, Lee loved having eggs for breakfast. This was important.

Aside from the impending arrival of Sozin's Comet, it was a day like any other for Lee. He was chatting with his girlfriend, who was drowsily nursing her morning cup of tea. Lee was excitedly rambling about his recent assignment to one of airships in the First Imperial Sky Fleet as he set breakfast on the table.

He had made fried eggs, as usual. Enough for the both of them.

However, unbeknownst to Lee, one of the eggs he'd used had been rotten, and he had cooked the two helpings separately, one after the other. Neither he or his girlfriend were aware of this, however. Both of them ate their breakfast, oblivious to this fact. One of them came down with food poisoning.

Now, in one iteration of history, the one most of you are probably familiar with, Lee set the plate with the bad eggs at his spot, and the plate with the normal eggs at his girlfriend's. He would then have gotten food poisoning and been forced to stay home from work, requiring his supervisors to find a last minute replacement.

This was important, because of what airship Lee was assigned to work on. It was, in fact, the very same airship that would be boarded by a certain trio of saboteurs, and he was assigned to the very section where the three intruders would enact the very first step of their plan. In the canonical history, as you might call it, Lee of course got food poisoning, and his replacement - a heavyset, silent fellow - would respond to a broken valve only to be ambushed and knocked out.

But since Lee didn't eat the bad eggs, and didn't get sick, he was the first one who got ambushed by the saboteurs. The outcome was the same, of course. Lee had no combat ability to speak of, whereas his assailants were three of the most dangerous people in the world: The young commander of the Kyoshi warriors, Suki daughter of Ai and Koi, a veritable prodigy in the traditional fighting styles of her order, both armed and unarmed; Toph Bei Fong, a prodigy earthbender, daughter of Grand Duke Lao of Gaoling, and the inventor of metalbending; Sokka son of Hakoda, of the Southern Water Tribe: swordsman, strategist, and initiate of the Order of the White Lotus.

It was foregone conclusion, really. Lee wasn't a firebender, or any sort of fighter, and he was caught off guard besides.

The outcome was the same. Sokka, Suki, and Toph ambushed the engineer, knocking him out and taking a map of the airship, before storming the bridge and beginning one of the most overwhelming examples of guts and strategic cunning triumphing over vastly superior firepower. The three of them working together were able to decimate the Phoenix King's air force, saving Earth Kingdom from perishing in flames. Just as in canon, the outcome was the same.

But the aftermath wasn't.

* * *

In a small tavern in the "former" Fire Nation colony of Yu Dao, a bedraggled, possibly concussed mainlander was chattering excitedly as he regaled a small crowd of drunks who had nothing better to do with his account of the Battle of Wulong Forest. He was not much of a story teller, prone to rambling and straying off track, and the stories of that battle had been traded back and forth for weeks, now, ever since the news of the Phoenix King's defeat, but his account provided an unusual perspective, and insight, into the battle.

Lee had been there, after all.

He had just gotten to the part where he had been ambushed by the three saboteurs lying in wait, having gone to great length in describing every detail of his assailants' features, when he was stopped by a scrawny old graybeard with a vaguely disgruntled air.

"I know that boy!" he shouted angrily, jumping up in his seat when Lee finished describing the dark-skinned young swordsman. "That's the Water Tribe boy who traveled with the Avatar!"

There were a few snorts from the other assembled personages, and one of the drunks skeptically asked the old merchant, "And how would you know?"

A dark look came into the man's eyes, and he simply snarled, "I'll never forget his face, or his friends' faces." Continuing, his voice barely above a hiss, "He's a menace to cabbages everywhere. The whole lot of them are!"

Normally such a proclamation would have earned uproarious laughter from the crowd, but at the dangerous expression on the man's face the mirth died away in their throats.

There was a heavy, pregnant silence for a moment, before one of the patrons finally ventured a nervous, "Well, anyone could _say_ that one of the Avatar's buddies was there. 'S'just common sense, innit?" he said, and the others nodded in somewhat hesitant agreement. "Yeah! Anyone could say that," the man continued, more confidently. "But d'ya have any _proof_ _?_ "

The mainlander grinned. "What do you know about the Water Tribe boy?" he replied with a question of his own. He had a look on his face like he had been counting on this.

The crowd was quiet for a moment as they collectively mulled over this question. After a couple of minutes, one of the more recent arrivals, who hadn't had much to drink yet, spoke up.

"Isn't his sister the Waterbender? The Avatar's lover?"

One of the more haggard drunks nodded. "Yeah! And he were wunna them non-bendin' warrior types, 'ccordin' ter me cousin in the navy. Wit' a, what do they call it, a, a 'boomy-ranger', or summat o' the sort, weren't he?"

"You mean, the Boomerang Guy?" asked one of the slower patrons, to a chorus of nods and murmuring from the crowd.

 _"I thought he was Meat and Sarcasm Guy?"_ whispered another, but he was hushed by his drinking buddies

"Aye," said a grizzled-looking campaigner in one corner of the crowd, gaining the attention of the listeners. In that single syllable, he had spoken with such authority that they were compelled to take notice, his face and arms marked with countless old battle scars, and a sizable chunk missing from his nose.

"I've fought with tha sort before," he continued in a salty accent, "them scurvy, savage Swertings. Ach, they're a fierce lot tae reckon with, I'll tell ye tha'. Near lost me right arm to one o' their warrior types back durin' Azulon's raids. Let me say, ye dinnae want ter unneressimate a Swerting wit' a boomerang! nay unless ye've a death wish. And I pertickerly wouldna want tae face agin' summan like tha' boy what's said tae travel with the Avatar."

The old sailor paused, his eyes flitting from side to side. He had the attention of the whole bar now - even Lee was paying rapt attention to the veteran's rambling - and the crowd had by this point swollen to near twice it's earlier size. After a moment of breathless silence, the man continued, his voice scarce above a whisper.

"A _swordsman_ , they say he be," he said the word with considerable weight, allowing the implication to sink into the minds of his new audience. "Them Southern Tribe warriors be able tae fight well enough wit' nary more than clubs and spears and them whatsit boomerangs. Fermidable enuff, I'd say they be. Ach, but this lad, this _Boomerang Guy_ , he dinnae settle jes' fer tha', ach no.

"A Swerting wit' a sword!" he exclaimed wonderingly, "An' a magic one, a' tha', if half the stories're tae be believed. Able ter cut _snicker-snack_ right through whatever ye please, easy as tha'. An' black as night, the blade be (or so they say), wit' a gilt handle an' magic spells an' all." The old man shook his head. "Ach, tha's naught I'd e'er want ter face. That'd be tae mooch ter ask o' an old man. Tae mooch ter ask o' any man what be in his right mind."

Having said his peace, the grizzled veteran reclined in his seat and took a drag of his pipe, letting the discussion return to the matter at hand.

The mainlander, Lee, grinned again, and he eagerly reclaimed the crowd's attention.

"Yes, that's right," he said. "This Water Tribe boy, this boomerang guy, he had a black sword. Everyone who's heard the stories knows that, right?"

There was some nodding and a general tone of assent from the various gathered drunks and rascals, and Lee's grin widened.

"Well, I just so happen to have irrefutable proof that he was there!" he declared proudly, before withdrawing a long, slender object from the depths of his tattered outfit. It was a sword, a _jian_ of peerless craftsmanship. The blade was black, with a gilded handle, and the pommel was engraved with the image of a lotus. "This is the very sword the boy was using!" he proclaimed.

It had been pure luck that, when Lee swam ashore from being dropped straight from the airship's holding bay along with most of the other crew, he happened across this sword. The weapon had been embedded up to its hilt in the scorched and blackened trunk of a burnt and cracked oak. He almost hadn't seen it, at first, but while nervously looking for a place to do his business, he had been astonished to notice the ash-covered hilt sticking out of the charred, skeletal tree's trunk.

Of course, not being one to ignore such an opportunity when it's given to him, Lee had eagerly prized the weapon from the tree. And imagine his surprise when he saw it to be the same sword born by the Water Tribe boy!

But one of the worldlier, more cynical patrons scoffed at Lee's claim, saying, "If that _is_ the Wet's sword - and that is one _hell_ of an if - then why in the world would _you_ have it, and not the Wet?"

Surprisingly, Lee was not the one who answered this question. Someone else was.

"The Wolf threw it," interjected a gruff, harsh voice. "He threw it to take out one of my men. The blade sheared clear through one of the airship's wings. Cut through tempered, reinforced steel like it wasn't even there."

The speaker, a man who had been up until then sitting at the counter, quietly nursing a strong drink, shifted the hood of his cloak from his face to reveal sharp amber eyes and a stern countenance lined with the passage of years. He had a short, black beard shot through with streaks of pepper-gray. Yet even as unkempt and bedraggled as the man was, he still managed to project an air of unmistakable discipline and authority.

"Who the hell's this Wolf?" one of the drunker patrons inquired as politely as they could manage in their heavily inebriated state.

"The Wolf is the boy, if you could not infer as much from context," the man replied curtly, "and the boy is the Wolf: Sokka of the Southern Water Tribe, one of the Avatar's original traveling companions, according to the reports. His armor bore the same clan markings as the armor of the Southern Water Tribe's current chief, Hakoda the White Wolf."

This name garnered some recognition. Hakoda, the leader of a band of Southern Water Tribe warriors, had been a known thorn in the Fire Nation's side during the last several years of the war. His daring, unconventional tactics and ferocity in battle had earned him a good deal of infamy, as well as the moniker of the White Wolf, and no small price on his head.

The man, seeing the crowd's reaction, pulled a water damaged scroll out of his pocket, unfurling it and showing its contents to the crowd. It was a wanted notice with the stamp of the previous Fire Lord, Ozai Azulon's son. On it, there was a sketch of the young man, giving his name as Sokka, along with a list of aliases, a general rundown of the offenses for which he was wanted, as well as a note that he was wanted _'_ _alive, if possible.'_

The man continued.

"As of my last briefing before the... _incident_... at Wulong Forest, I was informed that the boy was believed to be the son of the White Wolf after breaking him and two others out of the Boiling Rock-"

This earned a collective spit take from those patrons familiar with Fire Nation strongholds.

"That boomerang guy broke out of the Boiling Rock?-!" exclaimed one, who looked to be of heavily Fire Nation descent. "Ash and _soot_ ," he swore, "That's unbelievable! How could a kid do that?"

"By being crazy, I guess," reasoned another.

"That or some sort of tactical genius," agreed a third.

"Well, didn't he and those two girls take down the entire air fleet by themselves?" interjected yet another.

"There had to have been more," someone else protested disbelievingly.

"I only saw the three," said Lee with a shrug. "If there were more than that, I didn't see any."

And so the discussion progressed, and the seeds of a legend began to grow.


	2. A Legend Grows

Gossip was a strange thing. Jeong-Jeong, were he writing this narrative, might compare it to fire. It had a life of its own, it grew and changed and _consumed_ as only a living thing could. It spread quickly, dangerously, impossible to control and all too often destroying everything it touched. It was dangerous, best avoided, best snuffed out before it grew too large to extinguish.

It would be a rather apt analogy, all things told.

Rumors, similarly, were also a lot like weeds. If you did not nip them in the bud as soon as they appeared, before you knew it they would be everywhere. They spread with uncanny ease, taking up all available space and choking out more desirable plants. If you failed to stop them before they could spread, then either you learned to live with them or you got down on your hands and knees and started the long, hard, dirty work of digging up the entirety of your lawn or garden.

And it really was strange how quickly these things could travel. Spy masters with networks more vast and tangled than a modern celebrity's friend list on a social networking site, dedicated couriers and specially bred messenger hawks trained to take the swiftest routes physically possible with only the barest amount of rest, and still simple gossip traveled faster than could possibly be tracked, or matched, by even the best intelligence networks in the Four Nations - almost before it was here, it was already there.

It seemed impossible how quickly simple barroom tales and idle rumors could travel, or how far and wide they could spread. Or how they could change in the spreading. Like living organisms mutating and evolving from one generation to the next, the tales that were told of Sokka son of Hakoda in that bar that night grew and changed with every retelling - and there were _many_ retellings.

One slightly scrawny engineer became a dangerous firebender became several firebenders became an entire army that he fought off with nothing more than a boomerang and his wits. Two female compatriots became two scantily clad female compatriots became two well-endowed scantily clad female compatriots who were also his secret lovers and part of a vast harem of beautiful and dangerous ladies from every corner of the world. A desperate attempt to catch Ozai or stop the fleet became a daring effort to blunt the tip of the proverbial spear that was the Fire Nation's air force became a perfectly executed plan to hold off the entire rest of the army while the Avatar dealt with the Fire Lord alone.

The tale, you might say, grew in the telling. As it spread from one ear to the next, it became gradually more embellished, more fantastic. As it traveled up the coast and further inland, people who had met Sokka over the course of his travels with the Avatar added their own anecdotes and perspectives to the continually evolving legend.

"That guy with the boomerang? I remember him. He warned our village of a plot to blow up the dam upriver and helped us evacuate. Saved our skins, he did!"

"That kid was a damn fine fisherman, a real natural. Brought in a shark with his bare hands!" ("No he didn't, you crazy old coot!" "Get off my back, woman!")

"Sokka? Ohhh yeaahhh, I remember him. He's that kid with the arrow tattoo on his head, right?"

"I heard his first lover was the princess of the North Pole, but she sacrificed her life to become the Moon Spirit. They say he still longs for her embrace on nights of the full moon, too! Isn't that just the _most romantic?_ "

"I remember that boy, helped save my hide. Fought off a swarm of canyon crawlers in nothing but a loincloth, I tell ya!"

"Haha, man he was a real chatty guy, wasn't he, Lilz? Yeeaaahh. A real funny little guy, that Sokka, with those big pointy ears and them fuzzy little paws. And he could _fly!_ Maaaan, I'd never seen a monkey that could do _that_ before! (...Well, okay, there was this _one_ time...)"

"Thanks to the help him and his friends, myself and our village's other earthbenders were able to escape from that Fire Nation prison barge. His sister motivated us to rebel, and his ingenuity provided us with the earth we needed to fight the guards - the coal they were using for fuel!"

"He helped me perfect my hot air balloon design, before it was stolen by the Fire Nation!"

"SEEEECREET TUNNNEEEEEEEL! SEEEECREET TUNNNEEEEEEEL!"

"THE BOULDER suspects that there may be a THING between him and the BLIND BANDIT. But you did NOT hear THAT from THE BOULDER."

"You didn't hear it from me, but word has it that, this Sokka dude? His girlfriend is some sorta _crazy hot_ amazon chick who can jump, like, ten stories into the air."

"I'm tellin' ya, man, that kid's the one pulling the Avatar's strings. It makes sense. _T_ _hink about_ _it._ "

"I hear he's part of some sort of ancient secret society spanning all across the Four Nations."

"I hear he's its _leader._ "

And on it went. Like a snowball rolling down a hill, the legend of Sokka grew larger and larger as it traveled, gaining more momentum with every retelling. From Yu Dao barflies and rumormongers, the tale passed to traveling merchants and sailors, who carried it with them as they continued along their trade routes.

Over land and sea it spread, the tale thriving in bars and taverns and inns and docks, where it passed from the tongues of merchants to the ears of locals, who themselves shared the stories with their friends and their families, and other merchants traveling by other trade routes. This process repeated itself many times, the legend of Sokka Hakoda's son, friend and adviser to the Avatar, vanquisher of the Phoenix King's fleet, defender of the Earth Kingdom, and Hero of the Hundred Year War spreading throughout the land.

And who can say how or why his tale managed to grab the hearts and minds of the people so? Perhaps it was because this Sokka, like so many others, was a non-bender, and yet in spite of that still able to stand proudly - as an equal - alongside the likes of the Fire Lord, and the Avatar. Here was someone like them, someone who had been born with no special gift (save perhaps a certain knack for resourcefulness), no bending, and yet had still been able to make his way alongside the greats of his era.

To non-benders the world over, the tale of Sokka was, perhaps, something that gave them hope that they too could make a difference if they tried, that they too could become _great_. To the downtrodden masses, it represented a hope that one day the wounds of the war could be forgotten. After all, had not Sokka also lost loved ones to the Fire Nation? Had he not also fought them wherever he could? Yet now he was accounted a friend of the Fire Lord, a fellow liberator of the Fire Nation. If he could forgive and forget, than maybe so could they.

Put frankly, to them he became as much a symbol as a man. He was like a living legend, a modern day folk hero. He was larger-than-life, but he still felt approachable. And perhaps _that_ , more than anything else, was what made his tale so beloved, so compelling. He was, ultimately, underneath all of the enshrouding myth and memetic mutation, simply just another Average Joe, like you or me. Not a banished prince, or a destined savior, or a prodigy bender; he was just a guy with a boomerang.

...and it was also still one HELL of a tale.

* * *

Lao Bei Fong had not been having a very good day.

Well, to be more accurate, he had not been having a very good week, either. In fact, if he was to be entirely honest with himself, the whole last month had really just been nothing but one headache after another.

It had all started with the news of the defeat of the Fire Lord (or was it the Phoenix King?) at the hands of the Avatar, and the report of the newly crowned Fire Lord Zuko's call for the immediate withdrawal of all nonessential Fire Nation military personnel from the Earth Kingdom.

Now, ostensibly, this was a good thing for the Earth Kingdom and its citizens - _the war was over! the war was over!_ \- people like Lao Bei Fong and his wife, Poppy. And it _was_ , for the most part. At the very least, Lao was certainly grateful that he no longer had to fear his estate being stormed and his assets seized by Fire Nation troops. No, now he just had to worry about being audited by the Earth King and strung up by the gibbet for the crime of treason.

So, yes, I suppose you could say that old Lao was in something of a pickle.

You see, the Bei Fongs had for generations been one of the wealthiest families in the world. They were a very old, very _prestigious_ family that had for centuries profited heavily from international trade. They had strong ties to wealthy merchant and noble families throughout the world, ties of business and marriage dating back to several centuries before the Hundred Year War. For nearly a thousand years, the Bei Fong family had enjoyed its reputation as one of the wealthiest, most influential families in the world. For twenty-four generations, the heads of the Bei Fong family had benefited from partnership and trade between the Four Nations - Lao's own great-great-great-grandfather had dined with both the Earth King and Fire Lord, and negotiated the safe passage of Bei Fong merchant ships between the Northern and Southern Water Tribes after a dispute between the two Chiefs.

The Winged Boar had endured through countless challenges and hardships, and always they had come out on the top of the heap. Through generations of ruthless political maneuvering and countless marriages of convenience (Lao's own wife had been the eldest daughter of a wealthy, young family of Yu Dao industrialists), the Bei Fong family had managed to thrive and prosper for centuries.

But then everything changed when the Fire Nation attacked.

The genocide of the Air Nomads - the Rape of the Four Temples, as Lao had heard it called in a rambling poem by some unknown author - shocked the world, and the Fire Nation's subsequent assaults on the Earth Kingdom and Water Tribes made it basically everyone's enemy. And for many years, the Bei Fong family - which had prior to the war profited extensively from a number interests in the Fire Nation's booming economy - fell into relative obscurity.

For, you see, Mao Bei Fong, Lao's grandfather and the head of the family during the reign of Sozin, had been a very patriotic soul. The moment he learned of the war, he severed all of their family's _extensive_ ties with the Fire Nation (no small feat, since more than a few daughters of wealthy Fire Nation families had married into the Bei Fongs over the generations), and invested the vast majority of the family's liquid assets into local Earth Kingdom businesses. Unfortunately, as patriotic as Mao was, he did not have the most economic sense, and several of his most important investments failed catastrophically, leaving the Bei Fong family in rather dire straits, financially.

Fortunately, Lao's father, Long Bei Fong, had been a more practical sort. When Long took over the family business, the first thing he did was salvage their connections in the Fire Nation, secretly investing most of the Bei Fong family's remaining capital in various promising Fire Nation industries. Long's gamble paid off considerably better than his father's had, and by the time he retired to let his son take over the reins, the Bei Fong family had regained most of its former wealth.

Lao, in turn, had followed shrewdly in his father's tracks, secretly continuing business with Fire Nation merchants and industrialists, with the continued prosperity of the Winged Boar to show for it. Everything had been going _swimmingly_ , really. Aside from his daughter's blindness (an unfortunate condition that tended to pop up every few generations in the Bei Fong line) and his continued failure to produce a suitable heir - and goodness _knows_ how hard he had tried - things had been going well enough for the Bei Fong family.

At least, right until the day the Avatar chose to _grace_ their home with his presence, demand _his_ daughter as an earthbending teacher, and - when Lao quite reasonably said _no_ \- abduct said daughter and spirit her away to who _knows_ where. And now the war was over, the dust was clearing, his daughter was suddenly a great war hero and NOT a helpless kidnapping victim, and the Earth King's tax collectors were beginning to ask Lao about his supposed "off-shore accounts" and more suspicious investments.

Lao glanced around somewhat nervously at the decor of the restored Bei Fong manor. Never before had he noticed quite how... _Fire Nation_... it looked. All dragons and volcanoes and wooden furnishings, with not so much as a single badger mole in sight.

Even if this was the way the Bei Fong manor had been decorated for generations, Lao still knew that auditors might find it suspicious when added up with other small incongruencies, and suspicious auditors digging through his financial records was the _last_ thing he wanted.

Lao sighed. He knew that there _was_ one way he might be able to salvage things without spending thousands of gold pieces on bribing high ranking officials, and his wife Poppy knew it, too. The time was come for their daughter to do her duty to the family. The two of them had decided as much the previous night.

An arranged marriage would be for the best.

But the question was, _who?_ Lao knew that the most effective way to quash any rumors of treasonous past dealings would be to engage his daughter, Toph Bei Fong, to someone in high standing with the Earth King, at the very least. It would also be very helpful if this person were a war hero or commander of some sort, a man who had fought against the Fire Nation and been recognized for his service.

Ideally, the chosen suitor should be young, promising, someone who represented the future of the Earth Kingdom, and of the world as a whole. Somebody handsome, charming, charismatic - a darling of the masses and a friend to the nobility. Someone with plenty of business sense, and either a strong enough will to rein in their wild child of a daughter, or else enough patience to endure her antics.

Lao shook his head.

"Ah, but where could I ever hope to find such a person?" he opined, shaking his head once more before looking down to go through the mail.

And that's when he saw it. That blasted messenger hawk.

He scowled, thinking bitterly of the letter his daughter had wrote her. And by association, his mind went also to young Toph's traveling companions, and Lao recalled some interesting rumors he had recently overheard some of his servants sharing during one of their breaks, wild accounts of a certain Water Tribe boy's exploits in the war - a young man who just so happened to be one of his daughter's traveling companions, and one of whom his daughter was most certainly fond, if Lao still knew anything about a young maiden's heart.

And the head of the Bei Fong family smiled craftily, the seeds of a plan already beginning to take root in his mind.

* * *


	3. First Signs

Sokka wasn't entirely sure when it started. At first, he didn't notice the curious looks sent his way, or the whispers that seemed to die out when he entered a room, only to redouble when he left. Not at first.

Partly, this was because he had _already_ been receiving some such treatment. When he and the rest of the team had come back to Ba Sing Se, they had been welcomed as heroes. There had even been a festival and everything, courtesy of the newly re-enthroned Earth King Kuei and the liberation forces of the Order of the White Lotus.

There had been plenty of food – cuisine of every kind, from all over the world, and even some traditional Air Nomad dishes courtesy of King Bumi (not that Sokka touched those) – and drink – ranging from plain water and fruit juice to fine tea (the brewing of which Iroh had personally supervised) and strong wine (Sokka _may or may not_ have slipped a few drinks for himself and his girlfriend, Suki) – as well as music and dancing. Just about everyone – from the leanest shoe-shining refugee to the fattest old money noble – had partaken in the celebrations, and all had hailed Aang and his friends as conquering heroes.

Sokka had gotten no small amount of praise that night, and he and Toph and Suki were entreated to share the story of their sabotage of Ozai's airfleet so many times that, by the time the night was through, they had all but perfected the telling of their tale. Of course, Aang was still the star of the show, so to speak, and had received the lion's share of the accolades, but Sokka and the others still had plenty of admirers of their own to deal with.

Katara probably got the second most attention next to Aang, and a disconcertingly large portion of that attention had come in the form of girls asking about her love life and guys asking her for a dance. If Aang hadn't subsequently proceeded to, somewhat clumsily if not inarguably sweetly, make it _very_ clear that he and Katara were a couple, Sokka was certain that someone would have wound up getting their ass frozen to the floor.

Similarly, Suki had also attracted no small amount of creeps (even if several of the guys flirting with her _were_ genuinely charming and suave and respectful, the mere fact that they were hitting on _his_ girlfriend meant that Sokka automatically categorized them as such), although she was perhaps more graceful in handling her unwanted admirers. It helped that they were much better behaved than Katara's: only one guy had been so foolish as to attempt copping a feel off of her. The fact that the creep's arm _just so happened_ to SNAP quite suddenly and mysteriously the _instant_ he tried to pinch the Kyoshi Warrior's butt probably had something to do with this.

Luckily for Ba Sing Se's continued existence, nobody was stupid enough to try anything on Toph. The fact that the blind earthbender had kicked off the celebrations by jumping off of Appa's back, stomping a foot on the ground to cause a tremor strong enough to flatten a whole city block while shouting "ALRIGHT, YOU LOSERS! LET'S KNOCK SOME HEADS!" almost _certainly_ had nothing to do with it – surely not.

Hell, even Zuko and his apparently-no-longer-quite-an-ex-girlfriend Mai got their fair share of praise and adoration from the Ba Sing Se citizenry, who were apparently just happy that there would finally be a Fire Lord in power who WASN'T visibly power-hungry _or_ maniacal. The prince was visibly flustered by all this attention from people he clearly believed should have hated him, but his date looked as inscrutably uninterested as ever.

And Sokka? Well, he was mostly just glad that the crutch and broken leg gave him a ready-made excuse for turning down all of those invitations he was getting from his female admirers to come and dance. He'd had enough trouble as it was just trying to convince the ladies that he was already in a committed relationship with Suki. (Though he was still more than happy to entertain them with exaggerated tales of his exploits, sprinkled with plenty of bad jokes.)

So yeah, it wasn't as though Sokka hadn't already been being treated as something of a celebrity. They all were.

And they _still_ were, even a month after the end of the war and the liberation of Ba Sing Se. Even a month later, people would still stop them in the middle of the street to _thank them_ for what they had done, especially Aang. He was the Avatar, after all. The keeper of the balance, the great bridge between the... spiritual thingy and the material whatsit. You know: savior of the world, mortal incarnation of the planet's immortal spirit, all that jazz.

In comparison to all that – heck, in comparison to any of the Gaang – Sokka was nothing special. And now that the war was over, _he was okay with that._ Sure, it still smarted a little bit whenever he saw his friends doing these amazing things with magic or chi or whatever without even _thinking_ about it while he had to work his ass off just to not look completely useless next to them, but he was okay with that. Honest, he was.

So what if even his girlfriend, who was a non-bending warrior like himself, made him look so hopelessly clumsy and inept whenever they sparred? So what if losing boomerang and space sword had been like losing a _piece_ of himself, a piece that he still missed? He didn't _need_ to try to be this big, strong, fearless warrior anymore – he no longer had to pretend at being something he wasn't.

The war was over. He didn't need to act like a warrior anymore, didn't need to pretend that he could possibly make any real difference in a fight. He wasn't strong or brave or anything he felt a man _should_ be, but that was okay. Katara didn't need him to protect her anymore, the tribe no longer needed him. The former had a boyfriend to take care of her (and was also _more_ than capable of doing so herself!), and the latter now had waterbenders from the North _as well as_ all of the men who had finally returned from the war.

As far as Sokka was concerned, he wasn't strong or special or necessary, but _whatever_. The war was over. There was peace now, more or less. He was famous, kinda, and even a bit of a hero, perhaps. Hell, he had somehow even managed to catch the attention of an _incredible_ young woman who was so strong and beautiful and completely out of his league (he pointedly ignored what his track record with women had to say on this matter), and yet had still decided to go out with him. As far as he was concerned, that alone made him just about the luckiest son of a polar bear dog on the planet.

But still. Even with as nicely and admiringly people had been treating him for the past month, there started to be noticeable – if subtle – shift in their attitudes toward him.

Before, he had generally just been seen as _that guy_ , you know, the one who tagged along with the Avatar and did some stuff in the war. He'd gotten enough respect from the old officers and gray-haired veteran soldier types he ran into on the street, and he'd certainly had his fair share of female admirers, but honestly no special attention had been paid to him compared to the rest of the group. Even as a war hero, he had just been the meat and sarcasm guy.

But in the past week, something had _changed_. It was subtle at first – merchants giving him small discounts, girls flirting with him a just a little more forwardly, people more frequently nodding respectfully or saying hello when they passed him in the street. Subtle. Little things that he didn't even notice at first.

Yet as the week progressed, subtlety diminished, and soon Sokka's friends were beginning to take note of the unusual treatment he was getting. They took it in stride at first, but when they saw that Sokka wasn't even aware of the change they started to ask questions, and make comments on these things.

They noticed the discounts that became steeper, and the merchants who began occasionally adding on a free thing here or there to his purchases. They saw the numbers of flirtatious admirers grow, and heard some astonishingly shameless propositions slipped in among the compliments and pleasantries. And they perceived that the nods and greetings became more frequent, more reverent, and they even caught a few outright stopping and bowing to Sokka when he was just passing by.

"Seriously, Snoozles, did you even _see_ the way those guys were looking at you?"

Sokka quirked an eyebrow at Toph, who was lazily walking down the street beside him. Her hands were behind her head and she was whistling snatches of some refrain he couldn't quite place, her pale jade eyes staring ahead sightlessly.

"Did _you_ _?_ " he replied half-jokingly, eyeing his companion with a hint of curiosity.

Toph snorted.

"Don't give me that. We both know that while my _eyes_ might be blind, these feet of mine—" she kicked a leg up extra-high on her next step to illustrate "—can read people better than anything else, and they're telling me that those guys were looking at you like some kind of hero."

Sokka shrugged dismissively. "Well, we kind of _are_ ," he said, waving off his pal's remark.

"Yeah, _duh_ ," Toph snarked. "Of course _we_ are. But _we_ weren't the ones they were looking at. _You_ were."

"Is there really a difference?"

Toph was quiet for a moment.

Then she shrugged.

"Maybe. I'unno," she finally grunted in reply. "Maybe I'm just imagining things. After all," she said, a smirk growing on her face. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to look at _you_ when pure awesomeness incarnate is walking down the street right next to you."

Sokka snorted, the sound almost covering the chuckle he got out of his friend's words. "You're probably just so short that they didn't even notice you."

Toph's fist shot out and caught Sokka in the arm, causing the Water Tribe teen to yelp and rub the bruise that was already beginning to form.

"Sheesh, Toph, I was only kidding," Sokka grumbled, pausing to inspect the damage. He grimaced. "Owww, geez. Those fists of yours are ridiculous. How can something so tiny hurt so bad?"

Toph grinned. "I'm just that good," she said cockily, prompting Sokka to shake his head and laugh.

"Well, you _are_ good, I'll give you that," he replied, giving a playful clap on the back. "Probably the scariest little girl I'll ever meet."

"Would that be the good kind of scary, or the bad kind?" Toph asked him frankly.

Sokka frowned.

"There's a difference?"

Toph nodded.

"Well, yeah, of _course_. I mean, one kind is like Azula, while the other is like—" she began to say, only to abruptly stop mid-sentence. She was frozen in mid-stride for a moment, an inscrutable expression on her face. But then it passed, and she said, "— _Suki...?!_ "

Sokka made a weird face. "What's like Suki?" he asked. "I mean, I know she's scary, but it's more a _hot_ kind of scary, you know?"

Toph snorted. "Not _that_ , genius. She's _here._ "

Sokka then froze.

" _Here?_ "

Sokka squeaked, sounding like he was almost afraid to hope. The morning after the post-war celebrations a month ago, Suki had taken the first ferry out of Ba Sing Se. She'd had obligations to the Kyoshi Warriors that she needed to fulfill, and aside from a few sporadic letters Sokka hadn't heard from her since.

As inseparable as he and Suki were when together, neither of them were really very good at written correspondence, and the collection of letters from Suki that Sokka had stashed in his drawing desk drawer read more like official military status reports than love letters. They were both very tactile, expressive people, and the written word simply could not convey the subtle nuances of intonation and gesticulation that they so often relied upon to convey their meanings to one another. The two of them were very good at expressing their feelings through their actions, and they certainly were not afraid of physical intimacy, but try to get one of them to just put their feelings into _words_ and suddenly they'd be stuttering and stammering and making a complete ass out of themselves.

Neither of them could work up the courage to actually write down any of the sorts of sweet nothings they would usually be trading all the time in person, and most of their correspondence could be more-or-less summarized thus:

_'I'm fine, thanks. And you?'_

_'Good. How about you?'_

Naturally as a result of this, Sokka was a little bit unsure of where exactly he currently stood with his girlfriend. So the news that she was present in the city, unannounced, was as much a cause for apprehension as it was for joy.

" _H_ _ere?_ " Sokka repeated in what he would later insist was a perfectly manly tone of voice. "Where's _here?_ Define _here,_ " he exclaimed in a somewhat panicky tone of voice. _  
_

Toph gave her college best at rolling her eyes, but she answered his question. "In the city, somewhere. I dunno where, for sure, but I felt her presence at the edge of my senses..." she paused, before turning and pointing a hand in a north-by-northwesterly direction. "...somewhere _that_ way."

Sokka's eyes brightened. "How close is she?" he asked eagerly. It sounded like his excitement at the prospect of seeing his girlfriend again had officially overtaken his anxiety over why she might be here unannounced.

Toph frowned thoughtfully. "Well, for all it's faults, this city is at least build on some real good, solid earth. It's packed in there real tight, see, so vibrations can travel a lot more easily than they would somewhere else, and that lets me pick things up a lot from pretty far away – assuming I can feel it through all of the background noise. I'm not feeling Suki now, so she was definitely at the very edge of sensing range, probably headed in the other direction... so I'd say maybe three, four miles at _least_."

"Wow," said Sokka, a hint of something like awe in his voice. "And you can detect _everybody_ within that range?"

"In every direction," said Toph with a nod, "as long they're touching the ground, or else something made of earth or metal."

Sokka whistled. "Awesome," he said.

It was one word, but the tone he used spoke volumes, and it was clear that he meant every ounce of the sentiment. The vibrations of their feet against the packed, hardened street bounced up and down Sokka's body, and the information Toph received from her feet told her of facial muscles shifting into a wide smile. The steady _ba-da-bump ba-da-bump_ of his heartbeat, and the familiar clumsy, loping gait of long legs and big feet that the teen had yet to fully grow into filled Toph's belly with a giddy fluttering sensation. She felt a faint warmth in her cheeks as the older boy grabbed her hand and turned them around to go in the direction she had pointed.

"Well? Lead the way, O fearless badgermole," said Sokka, half-facetious and half-sincere.

Toph smiled softly, turning her face downwards to hide the expression, her fingers tingling pleasantly as his big, warm, calloused hands squeezed hers.

"Sure," she said, before twisting her hand out of his grip and punching him again in the arm. Grinning widely, she began jogging ahead. Turning her head to face over her shoulder, she called out to the young warrior.

"Pick up the pace, Snoozles! You're gonna have to really hustle if you don't want to be left behind!"

Sokka blinked. Then, after a moment of staring, he snapped out of his daze and started jogging after her.


	4. A Long Awaited Reunion

It was a very fine day in Ba Sing Se. The sun was bright overhead, but it was not too hot out. It was about a few weeks into autumn, after all, and the worst of the summer heat was behind them. The air was cooler, now, the wind crisp and sharp with the soft nip of early fall.

Although even during winter the weather in the Impenetrable City was warm, and the temperatures there had not once in living memory come even within spitting distance of freezing, there was still a difference to be felt with the changing of the seasons. Winter was still colder than the rest of the year, for instance, and it tended to be pretty rainy too.

But in the crowded markets and bazaars of the Middle and Lower rings, this difference was not yet noticeable. The heat of hundreds, even thousands, of bodies packed tightly together in massive, pulsing throngs as shoppers passed to and fro examining goods made it feel like they were still in the dog days of summer.

The indistinct buzz of merchants and shoppers chatting and haggling with one another filled the air, an almost deafening white noise that would ring in one's ears for hours afterwards.

No doubt this scene would seem stifling, even suffocating, to someone from out in the country: the air hot and heavy with the smells of perfumes and incense and produce and meat, as well as the pungent, combined body odor of hundreds of city-dwellers, both washed and unwashed. It was borderline claustrophobic, so many people being packed together in so small a space, with scarcely any room to move or breathe without bumping against someone else.

To Suki, commander of the Kyoshi Warriors, who had only once before inside Ba Sing Se proper, it was an experience she would much prefer to have never repeated. She had never liked crowds. She worked best with just a few allies at her side – she tended to feel almost overwhelmed whenever she was faced with large numbers of people. Back on Kyoshi Island, this was never a problem. The population there was not very large, and people knew when to give a Kyoshi Warrior her space.

But there were easily one and a half times as many people on this single street, in this single market _alone_ , than lived on all of Kyoshi Island put together, and Suki could barely stand it. She did not like having her personal space invaded. It went against everything she had ever learned from her mentors to let people she _didn't even know_ inside her private bubble. As a trained warrior, her instincts screamed at her every time she felt another body brush up against her, and as a woman she was certain that the only thing keeping the wandering hands of opportunistic perverts at bay was the manner of her attire.

For she was dressed in her uniform as a Kyoshi Warrior, resplendent in a practical green kimono cut and tailored to ensure minimal restriction of movement, over which she wore a layered lamellar of treated, hardened leather that provided sufficient protection to the torso for her purposes as a fighter. Her face was painted white as snow, with lips blood red and eyes lined in black that stretched up at the outer corners, creating almost the impression of some glaring, otherworldly creature.

The weapons she carried at her hips probably also had something to do with it, as did the obvious rancor in her piercing glance as she flitted her eyes this way and that, instinctively scanning the crowd for potential threats.

Slowly, Suki made her way through the mass of people. Her destination was near, she could feel it in her bones. Once she got through the worst of the heavy foot traffic in the marketplace, she would be finally able to breathe easily once more.

Yet as Suki neared the edge of the crowds, she heard a murmuring begin. It was not like the cacophony of speech and laughter and pleasantries and insults that had been pounding in her ears before. No, it was quieter, much quieter. People had stopped and begun to stare at something she could not see, and she could hear a buzz of hushed whispers that were just scarcely at the edge of audibility.

She could not make out what was being said at first, but before she could strain her ears in an attempt to see if she could make anything out, Suki heard a familiar voice shout

"SUKI!"

and suddenly the crowd before her had parted and a lean, hard, warm body had collided with hers, wrapping strong yet slender arms around her waist. Her first instinct, a gut reflex in response to this sudden, unwanted breach of her personal space, was to flip her assailant over and toss them to the ground.

She almost did it, too.

But then her brain stopped her. She remembered this body, she remembered its contours melding with her own in the heat of passion, recalled the warmth that filled her at its touch.

Then Suki smiled, and she leaned in to plant a soft, chaste, but undeniably warm kiss on the young man's cheek.

"Hi, Sokka."

Her boyfriend gushed happily and hugged her tighter.

* * *

Toph bit back the urge to grimace when she heard/felt/"saw" Sokka throw himself at Suki. The feeling of their heart rates skyrocketing as the two young lovers greeted one another in such a shamelessly touchy-feely fashion made her feel sick to her stomach, for more than one reason.

Not for the first time, Toph cursed the insight her enhanced senses gave her into Sokka and Suki's little reunion. Spending the first half of her life well and truly blind had caused her to rely more on other senses, like smell and hearing.

She really wished she could say that she didn't know the scent currently coming off of the pair – faint but still detectable under the numerous, varied aromas of the marketplace – but that would have been a lie. One could not spend over six years of their life with the ability to "see" through the earth without picking up _some_ unwanted knowledge on certain facts of life, even growing up in such a sheltered environment as Toph did.

Yes, she knew very well where babies came from. It was not something she was very _happy_ to know, and she did her best not to dwell on it, but she knew very well what happened when a man and a woman (or a man and a man, or woman and a woman, or even a man and a woman and a man...) "loved each other very much," as her matron had put it when she had asked.

This was not, of course, to say that Toph was by any means an expert on the subject. She certainly knew much more about it than a girl her age probably _should_ , but it was all stuff she had picked up through observation (and she knew it sounded _wrong_ when said like that, but it really wasn't as though she could just switch her tremor sense on or off, short of suspending herself off of the ground on something made of wood, but even that only dampened the vibrations).

Toph did her best to ignore the heightened pulses, the hitched breathing, the certain bits of anatomy stirring to life as Sokka and Suki continued to get all kissy-faced with each other. It gave her the oogies, hearing and feeling the two older teens acting like this. And not just because the two were acting so sappy and sugary.

She scowled, feeling her stomach knot itself up in some decidedly unpleasant ways as she felt Sokka's and Suki's hands begin to roam, evidently uncaring of who was watching. Deciding to put a stop to this – more because she wanted that nasty feeling in her gut to go away than out of any concern for Sokka or Suki's dignity – Toph spoke.

"You know, as much fun as it is listening to the two of you swap spit," she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, "that order of tea leaves won't pick itself up."

In unison, Sokka and Suki blushed and immediately pulled away from one another – Toph didn't even need to see to know this. She could _feel_ the blood vessels in their faces beginning to swell, could _hear_ the rush of fluid being pumped to their cheeks. _  
_

She smirked, victorious, the ugly feeling vanishing from her belly.

"Oh," said Suki softly. "Sorry. I didn't mean to..." she trailed off, before changing tack. "Well, where do you have to go?" she asked, seeming to quickly rebound from her embarrassment.

"Uh..." said Sokka slowly. "I think it was something like..." he went silent, most likely unable to remember the name of the store. Normally Toph would have gotten impatient and supplied the name for him once it was obvious he could not recall, but this time she felt like letting sweat.

Not that she was feeling vindictive, or anything.

After a few moments of stumbling over his own tongue, futilely wracking his memory for the name, Sokka finally gave up and began rummaging though his pocket for something. Toph could hear the rustling of skin against fabric and paper and more fabric, and she heard a crinkling noise as Sokka pulled out a small slip of scratch parchment.

"Ah, here," Sokka said, sounding relieved. "Iroh wrote it down in case we forgot."

 _'More like in case YOU forgot,'_ thought Toph, but she did not voice this sentiment. She then "saw" Suki bend over slightly, the older girl's eyes probably scanning the piece of paper.

" _Herb's Alism Shop?_ " the Kyoshi Warrior read out loud in a questioning tone, as though unable to believe what she was reading.

Toph felt Sokka shift his weight on his feet as he shrugged. "Guy knows his herbs, according to Iroh."

Toph heard Suki "Hm," and felt the girl pause, before leaning in to quietly whisper something into Sokka's ear.

 _"Do you know, if he might have anything for... more_ private _use_ _?"_

Sokka stiffened, and Toph gagged.

* * *

It was quiet for a little bit, as the three of them made their way to the store. Suki had decided to tag along, wanting to spend some more time with her boyfriend (the suggestive look she had given him when she'd asked him what other sorts of herbs Herb might stock also clearly indicated that she had an ulterior motive, but he was not about to protest).

"Sooo..." Sokka heard Suki venture after a few more minutes of awkward silence, "What's a couple of war heroes like yourselves doing running errands for Iroh?"

She sounded curious, delicately quirking a single eyebrow at her boyfriend when she met his gaze.

Sokka flushed slightly, some very distracting thoughts running through his head as he stared into Suki's eyes. Unbidden, his eyes glanced down at her lips, so full and sweet and inviting and—

He shook his head furiously to rid it of these thoughts. He could save it for later, he told himself. Now was not the time to be getting all hot and bothered over thoughts of him and Suki making up for lost time.

"Sokka...?" said Suki, eyeing him curiously. "Are you okay?"

"Y-yeah," he replied, stammering only briefly at the start before regaining more or less full composure. "It's nothing, honest. Me and Toph have just had a lot of free time, really. Aside from going to the occasional meeting with the Earth King and his generals to help iron out the details of this whole Harmony Restoration thing, we really haven't had much to do. Even pulling sca—er, I mean, practicing our forms... well, it gets _boring_ , after a while."

Suki smirked at him. " _'Practicing,'_ huh? That's funny... certainly not what I heard from _Katara_..." she singsonged teasingly.

Sokka paled, making a sound remarkably like the squeak of a gerbil pig.

"W-well, either way, we don't really work for Iroh," he hurriedly explained, anxious to change the topic. He really did _not_ feel comfortable discussing his and Toph's decidedly less than legal exploits in the Lower Ring. "We just hang out at the Jasmine Dragon a lot, and help out a bit sometimes. But mostly we just drink tea, swap stories, play pai sho, and paint."

He then paused, before continuing.

"Well, okay, the painting and playing pai sho is more me and Iroh than Toph, but you get the idea."

Suki nodded. "I do indeed," she said, smiling knowingly at the Water Tribe warrior. Walking alongside him, she casually slipped her hand around his and squeezed. "So," she added after a moment of silence, flashing a vulpine grin at Sokka, " _Painting_ , eh?"

He blushed, ears turning red. He could hear the playful amusement in her tone, and he knew that she was thinking of how his earlier attempts at art had turned out.

"Yeah," he told her, "but I think I've really improved this past month, you know? Sifu Piandao has taught me a lot about perspective and depth and stuff like that when he's had the time, and he says my art has really improved from what it used to be like."

Toph nodded, finally deciding to contribute something to this conversation. "Oh yeah, his art is _way_ better now. It looks just like the real thing."

Sokka beamed. " _Thank you_ , Toph! That's so nice of you to—"

A beat.

Sokka smacked his forehead.

"How do you keep getting me with that?" he groaned.

"Ehh, you're just too easy," Toph said with a shrug, smirking.

Suki giggled at this exchange, but she also smiled reassuringly at Sokka.

 _"If it helps any, I'd be happy to model for you if we have the time later,"_ she whispered into his ear, swinging her arm at her side and squeezing his hand in hers.

Sokka turned a shade of red normally reserved for select species of fruit.

* * *

It was just a short stop at Herb's Alism Shop to pick up what they needed (Suki buying something special for later) and another brief stop at the house where Sokka and Toph and the others lived back in the Upper Ring to let Suki drop off what little luggage she had brought with her to the city and change into a simple, casual blue kimono in the fashion preferred by civilian citizens of Kyoshi, washing the makeup of off her face, before they made their way back to the Jasmine Dragon.

Toph, using earthbending to move the stone cart loaded with Iroh's shipment, was the first of them to enter the tea shop.

"Hey, Iroh!" she called out cheerfully, stepping onto the _very nice_ stone tile floor of the Jasmine Dragon. "We've got your stuff!"

"Ah, excellent," came the old man's voice as he walked over to them. "I am very grateful that you would go through all that trouble for a simple old man like myself," he said humbly, and she could feel the broad grin on his broad face as he spoke.

Then Iroh glanced past Toph, and he saw Sokka and Suki come in behind the young earthbender.

"Ah! Young Suki," said the jolly old graybeard, recognizing the girl at once as Sokka's more or less official girlfriend. "It is a rare delight indeed, for these weary, old eyes to see such a radiant young beauty as yourself," he said flatteringly, bowing with a flourish. "You grace this humble tea shop with your loveliness, like a beautiful flower blossoming among the stones."

"And _you_ are the consummate flatterer," said Suki gracefully, smiling demurely at Iroh.

"Alas!" said the old soldier theatrically, "It is the curse of such a man as I, to be ever intoxicated by the subtle wine of feminine beauty. Such a frighteningly potent laudanum is the smile of a beautiful woman!"

Suki giggled, allowing Iroh to take her hand and plant a kiss on the back of it, while Sokka wrapped an arm possessively around her waist (though he was smiling).

Toph simply scoffed.

* * *


	5. Oil and Fire

In all honesty, Sokka was not the biggest fan of tea. Sure, he would drink it if he was given some, and he didn't particularly dislike the stuff. He just didn't really see what the big appeal was.

Part of this could perhaps be attributed to his youth, of course, but another, larger part of it was simply that, having grown up in the South Pole where there were only a few varieties of readily available, edible plants, and the primary source of fuel for fires was... well, _dung._

So, for obvious reasons, tea really wasn't much of a _thing_ in the Southern Water Tribe.

Gran-Gran was the only person in the entire tribe that he knew to have been a tea drinker, but that had been back in her youth, when there was still some trade between the Water Tribes and the Earth Kingdom. But it had been many decades since a merchant ship had made the long and perilous journey to the South Pole to barter such luxury goods in exchange for pelts and furs. The frequent Fire Nation raids had simply made the waters of the South Pole too dangerous.

But then, things were changing. With the end of the war and the gradual resuming of trade between nations, it was entirely possible that the Southern Water Tribe might see a resurgence in the popularity of foreign goods like tea and rice wine. Certainly, from what Sokka had read in the letters he had been receiving from his dad as part of their new, regular correspondence, several of the men of the tribe had picked up a taste for various Earth Kingdom dishes and drinks during their time abroad in the war, so it was honestly pretty likely, all told.

But Sokka still did not care all that much for it, personally. He was drinking it more out of habit, honestly, not because he actually _liked_ the stuff.

"Hmmm... This new chamomile blend of yours is pretty good," said the young warrior as he took an appraising sip from the cup in his hand, taking care not to scald his tongue as he did so. "It's got a good, distinctive flavor... not too strong, but not weak... I'd give it an eight out of..."

He paused, furrowing his brow as he took another taste, before smiling.

"On second thought," he said, " make that a _nine_ out of ten."

Toph, sitting next to him, nodded. "Yeah," she agreed, "It's really good, but it could still use some improvement. Maybe you should try using a different pot, or else steep the leaves a little longer. It feels like you didn't give quite enough time for the flavor to diffuse before serving. But other than that, it was great!"

Suki blinked, staring from Sokka to Toph and back to Sokka. She was looking at the pair like they had each grown a second head and started singing a barbershop quartet. Then, glancing down at her own cup of tea - which had scarcely touched - Suki briefly felt completely out of her depth.

But then she shrugged internally and said, "Well, _I_ liked it."

Iroh smiled, nodding his head and humming thoughtfully. "Mm, yes, good points. They are all very good points," he said, before letting out a hearty chortle. "Well, I suppose I will just have to see what I can do to make it better, then!" he concluded, to a chorus of grins and nods from Toph, Sokka, and Suki.

"This _is_ very good tea though, Iroh," said Suki after a moment, taking another sip. "Nobody else brews it quite like the Jasmine Dragon."

Iroh laughed, casually waving off her compliments. There was a faint tinge of pink to his cheeks, though. "It is nothing special," he insisted. "When you have lived as long as I have, it is only natural that you pick up a thing or two."

He then raised his own cup and took a long slow sip. Setting the cup back down on the table, he was silent for moment, a considering expression on his face. Then he nodded.

"And yes, I think you were right, Toph," said he, addressing the earthbender. "I really _should_ have let the leaves soak for longer than I did. The flavor did not come out at all as much as it could have. I will have to make a note of that for future reference."

"Need me to fetch you a piece of paper?" asked Sokka.

Iroh smiled, but he shook his head. "No need, I have already written it down on something much easier to keep track of." He tapped a finger to the side of his head with a laugh. "I have a memory like an iron vise grip."

"You sure it isn't getting rusty in your old age?" said Toph teasingly, nudging the old general in the ribs.

"I am not _that_ old!" Iroh protested, though his eyes were smiling. "For instance, I still remember that the last time Miss Suki was here, she was wearing a dark green silk dress had three cups of tea over the course of an hour and half long date: two green and one jasmine."

Sokka's eyebrows shot up into his hairline.

"A _date?!_ " he exclaimed, looking betrayed. "How could you?! I thought what we had was _special!_ "

Suki giggled. "It was with _you_ , silly. Remember? We came here the morning before I returned to Kyoshi Island."

Sokka blinked. "Oh. I knew that."

Toph sniggered

* * *

After finishing off their tea and chatting about recent events for a bit ("How were things back on Kyoshi Island?" "Oh, they were great. We had several new trainees join up, and Ty Lee has been drilling the warriors in chi blocking.") the subject of discussion gradually turned to more esoteric matters.

"So, what _is_ the Order of the White Lotus, anyway?" Suki had inquired pnce Toph had finished regaling her with the tales of her and Sokka's exploits in the Lower Ring. "I've been meaning to ask for a while, but I never got the chance before I had to leave. And nobody back home knew anything about it - or at least, nothing they were willing to say."

Iroh cocked an eyebrow curiously at her, as though surprised she would ask such a question. But there was a gleam of something else in his eyes.

"Oh, well it is nothing much," he said after a moment of thoughtful silence. "The Order is really just a club where old men get together to drink tea, play Pai Sho, and talk. Nothing more than what you see."

He said this simply, as though that were all there was to the matter. But subtle tells in his posture and expression - signs that most would not have noticed - belied a world of meaning beyond the words themselves, and the faintest hint of a smile played across his lips.

"...Come to think of it," he said, acting as though he was just remembering something, "I believe I _did_ promise young Sokka another game the last time we played, did I not?"

He glanced in the Water Tribe teen's direction, and the boy saw the unspoken message in the old man's piercing gold eyes.

"Yes, you did," he said, pushing his chair away from the table. "Do you remember where you put the set when we finished with it?"

"I believe so, but perhaps you could help me look?"

Sokka bowed.

"Of course, Grand Lotus Iroh."

Iroh smiled, returning the bow. "There is no need for such formalities between friends, Initiate Sokka. I am just a simple, old man with a fondness for Pai Sho and gossip."

"But aren't we all, at heart?" said Sokka, smiling.

Suki stared, mouth hanging open just slightly. It was clear to her now that this was not simply idle chatter - the words and gestures all seemed rehearsed, practiced. This was a routine, she understood, a coded exchange.

It was a little surreal, seeing her boyfriend like this. It was she had just caught a glimpse of a hidden side of him. He was most certainly not the same arrogant oaf she had first met all those months ago: his journeys had changed him greatly. And it seemed that his time here in Ba Sing Se was also changing him.

Hopefully for the better.

But then her train of thought was interrupted when Iroh and Sokka stood up and left the room, heading through a door in the back. She smiled at Sokka as he left, blowing him a kiss and causing him to flush. Then he went through the door, and Suki caught Iroh giving her and Toph a meaningful look and nod before he too vanished through the doorway.

It closed with a muted _click._

Toph chose that moment to speak.

"Why do you keep stringing him along?" she asked, a hint of bitterness in her tone, and suddenly Suki was wishing she had gone with Iroh and Sokka, because she knew where this was going and she _really did not like it._

"I have no idea what you mean..." Suki replied, but she was looking away from Toph.

"You _know_ I can tell when you're lying," said Toph lowly, causing Suki to wince. But then she scowled.

"I'm not stringing anyone along," she said sternly, this time meeting Toph's blind, unblinking stare head on.

Toph scowled, huffing irritably and crossing her arms across her chest. "Even if that's what you believe..." the girl muttered, before shaking her head and saying, "He really does like you, you know. And none of that silly halfhearted fluff, either. I mean serious _like_ like."

Suki smiled, a rosy color blossoming across her cheeks.

"Yeah, I know..." she said softly. "And the feeling is mutual."

Toph sighed. "He hopes to marry you, when he's older. He talks about it all the time. Did you know that?"

Suki stiffened, and she looked away from Toph. Raising a hand to her cheek, she began to worry self-consciously at a loose strand of auburn hair. She was silent now, staring intently at a point on the wall opposite Toph.

Neither of them spoke another word until Sokka and Iroh returned.

* * *

A true battle of wits between master strategists is a thing of sublime beauty. Every move a carefully calculated risk, another step in a meticulously formed plan, a taunt to goad the foe into a potentially fatal blunder. Very few have the understanding and insight to truly appreciate such a subtle duel of intellects, but those who do are invariably overawed when faced with such a sight.

The clicking of stone tiles against a stone board (a concession made to Toph's blindness) echoed throughout the silent tea shop as Iroh and Sokka began to play.

"I bet two gold pieces that Iroh wins," said Toph, settling down to observe the match with her earthbending senses.

"I'll put four gold on Sokka, then," replied Suki, an unspoken challenge in her tone as she eyed Toph just a little darkly.

"Your loss," Toph shrugged. "He might be your boyfriend or whatever-" and she said the _'_ _whatever'_ with perhaps a bit more ice in her tone than was normal, or strictly necessary. "-but Sokka sucks at Pai Sho. He hasn't won a single game yet."

"Well no wonder, with such an unsupportive friend," Suki replied cattily. "I, however, believe in him."

Sokka blushed, overhearing this as he set an earth tile down on a corner of the board.

"I'm just being realistic," said Toph. "I'm not going to waste time or money on something I _know_ isn't going to work."

Click. Clack. Sokka and Iroh continued to play. Clack. Click.

"Well of course it won't work!" Suki snapped, rounding on the blind girl. "If you go into something with an attitude like that you're just setting yourself up for failure!" _  
_

"Hey!" Toph snarled, whipping around to jab a finger accusingly against Suki's chest. "At least I'm not living in some fantasy la-la land telling myself everything is going out fine when it _obviously isn't!_ "

Click. Click. Clack. Click. Sokka and Iroh continued to absentmindedly set pieces on the board, but they were growing more absorbed in Toph and Suki's growing argument. They listened with morbid fascination, unable to block out the voices. Click. Clack. Click. Click.

"I'm just doing what I can to make this relationship work!" Suki retorted angrily. "Some of use prefer to actually go and take what we want rather than sit around and mope all day about not getting it handed to us on silver platter!"

"You're taking what you can't even keep!" Toph hissed. "You're just being selfish!"

"And you're just being a spoiled little defeatist!"

"Yeah?! Well, screw-!" Toph started to say, before stopping mid sentence. "-Wait." she said. "What?" She tapped a foot on the floor. "Sokka _won?_ " _  
_

Sokka and Iroh both blinked at this, and as one they stared dumbly at the game board.

"I did?" said Sokka, half disbelieving.

"It looks like it..." answered Iroh, looking somewhat sheepish.

Suki smiled gleefully, and - running over to Sokka - she threw her arms around him and planted a big, wet kiss on his cheek.

Then she turned a smirk on Toph, even though the girl could not see it.

"Looks like you'll have to pay up after all," she giggled.

Toph ground her teeth.


	6. Ship High in Transit

Being Fire Lord was an awesome responsibility. It was rather intimidating, really, how much the you were expected to do just to keep everything from going up in flames - quite literally, in this case, considering the impressive number of benders in the nobility - yet it was also a very rewarding job.

Knowing that you were doing your part to make the world a better place, even in spite of scheming nobles and bickering vassals, could really help you sleep peacefully. And the servants waiting on you hand and foot didn't hurt either, even if the abject servility did get a little old after a while. Honestly, the only thing that really, truly sucked about being Fire Lord (aside from the aforementioned nobles) was the assassins.

Zuko could _really_ do without those.

"That's the eighth one this month..." the Fire Lord opined as he watched his guards cart off another would-be killer.

He was in his royal bedchambers, dressed in naught but a nightgown with candles flickering in the darkness around the _massive_ four poster canopy bed. And in the bed next to him, boredly eyeing the slightly singed sheets on Zuko's side, was his girlfriend.

"I'm surprised they haven't given up on trying to kill you, by now," Mai remarked glibly, thumbing a throwing knife in the palm of her hand. She was dressed in a sheer silk negligee, very sensual and very expensive - only the best for the Fire Lord's girlfriend. "Somebody out there must really want you dead, to send this many assassins."

"Or many somebodies," Zuko responded glumly, shaking his head as he turned away from the unconscious body being dragged out of his room and off to the dungeons. "The nobility hate me. They want my father back on the throne."

"Some people just have no sense at all," Mai observed in a toneless drawl.

"Perhaps, but they still have the means to stir up rebellion," muttereed Zuko darkly, staring at the light of the flickering candles that ringed them in.

The dark-haired girl delicately arched an eyebrow at her boyfriend. "Oh, so it's a rebellion, now?"

"What else can we call it?" he replied. "They're making light of my authority, sending assassins against me, spreading dissent through the population... if things keep going at this rate, we'll be looking at all out civil war by the end of the year."

Mai shook her head with a sigh. "Zuko," she said slowly, "You might be the Fire Lord and my boyfriend, but you are such a _paranoid idiot_. Have you really forgotten so much about how the game works?"

Zuko blinked.

"Huh?" he said intelligently.

"They're testing you," Mai explained dryly, rolling her eyes at his denseness. "They're trying to see how much they can get away with, how far they can go. They're trying to figure out precisely how weak they are."

"I'm not weak!" Zuko protested indignantly, the candles flaring to life and casting the room in a deep, crimson-gold glow. He was glaring angrily at Mai, who simply rolled her eyes again.

"Yes, yes," she said in a tone that made it sound like she was simply humoring a tantruming child. "I know that, and you know that, but they _don't_. They haven't seen you in action. Not since..." she trailed off, tactfully choosing not to put into words that the last most of the nobles had seen of him before his ascension to the throne had been a young boy, barely older than twelve, kneeling down and begging his father for mercy.

Zuko winced, his face twisting into a grimace as he realized what Mai was saying.

"What, then, would you have me do?" he asked her. "How can I make them see that I'm not just some scared little boy any more?"

Mai sighed. "You won't like what I have to say," she told him, more as a statement of fact than any sort of warning, "But the only way to make them respect is to put your foot down and, well... _assert_ _yourself_."

Zuko narrowed his eyes. "And how, pray tell, would you suggest I do that?"

"Single out one or two of the most notable troublemakers," she told him. "Call them out and make an example of them before the court. Show the nobility that if they play with fire, they're going to get burned."

" _Agni Kai..._ " he muttered, understanding her meaning.

"That would certainly be one way of doing it," she replied, before yawning. "Now, if you don't mind me, I think I'll go to sleep now..." she began, only to feel a hand on her shoulder.

"Not yet," Zuko told her firmly. "We haven't finished what we started."

He then leaned in and kissed her deeply on the lips, holding her chin in his fingers. They maintained the contact for several long second, before Zuko pulled back and grinned softly at her.

Mai _almost_ smiled.

"That's more like it," she said, before grabbing hold of him and returning the kiss with interest.

* * *

Meanwhile, as Mai and Zuko began to kiss, another couple half way across the world stopped.

Katara smiled at Aang, still tasting his lips on hers. The kiss had been pretty chaste, all told - Aang was still just barely thirteen - but that did not mean that it lacked at all for passion. Even a tiny peck on the cheek, a short brushing of hands, could communicate a world of emotion between the two young lovers. They might have only been at the stage of shy flirting and occasional soft kisses, but Aang and Katara were still a very loving couple.

Appa rumbled beneath them, causing the two to break out in giggles briefly.

"I know, buddy," said Aang, smiling softly as he settled himself back down on his friend and partner's shoulder. "But I'm sure we'll find you a nice girl too, one of these days. I just know it."

Appa groaned, then let out a mighty _huff_ of breath.

"I'm sure there are other sky bison out there, somewhere," replied Aang, answering a question only he could understand. "Everyone thought the dragons were extinct, too, but then me and Zuko found... well, you know."

Appa hummed in response, and Aang laughed.

"Appa says we're almost there, Katara," said the Avatar, speaking to his girlfriend over his shoulder.

They began to dip lower in the sky, Appa's toes skimming the surface of the clouds as they slowly descended. Below them, far below yet, Aang and Katara saw the great walls of Ba Sing Se. They smiled, perceiving that their journey was finally nearing its end.

"Almost there..." Katara repeated, a soft smile playing across her lips. "Let's hope those two didn't knock down too many buildings this time."

Aang chuckled, scratching the back of his neck. "Well, they _did_ say it was just an accident," he replied. "I'm sure they behaved a lot better this time."

Katara shook her head as Appa circled lower and lower, gradually descending towards the Upper Ring. She had a slightly exasperated smile, and she sighed briefly.

"I really wish I could be so optimistic," she remarked . "But those two have an uncanny talent for getting into trouble."

She crawled over to one side of Appa's saddle and looked down at the finely paved streets and well-tended gardens of the Upper Ring. Perhaps trying to see if she could spot any obvious property damage.

Momo, who had been curled up against her side, popped one eye open at the sudden absence of its pillow. Seeing that Katara had moved, the flying lemur lazily stretched and let out a churring yawn, before spreading out its arms and taking wing, letting itself ride the air currents that swirled around Appa's massive body.

The lemur chirped and chittered, before diving down into the distance.

* * *

Toph took a nigh unhealthy amount of pleasure in smashing up the rock garden as she trained. There was just something so cathartic about raising boulders out of the ground and throwing them at other boulders.

Especially if she pictured the rocks as Suki's head, with it slender profile and feminine bone structure and stupid, smug grin that stretched her facial muscles in just such a way that seriously pissed off the earthbender.

Kicking the surface of the ground with a snarl, Toph threw dust and gravel up into the air as a number of stone pillars rose out of the earth in a geometrically flawless semicircle before her. That girl really got her goat. She couldn't say exactly how or why - or rather _wouldn't_ say -but it seemed like everything Suki did just grated at her nerves.

It drove her mad.

As Toph took a deep breath - maybe to cool her burning temper, or maybe just to give her next move a little more _oomph_ \- she tried to focus on the smashing of stone against stone and NOT the giggles and laughter of Suki and Sokka coming from the teen's room in the apartment behind her.

The building was located in the same location as their group's place of residence the previous time they had stayed in Ba Sing Se, but it had been heavily renovated since then. Partly because Toph was like a wrecking ball in little girl form, and partly because of damage that had been done during the Fire Nation occupation of the city, little remained of the house as they had known it. Almost completely rebuilt, at close to twice its previous size, the house was closer to mansion, and it had been decorated in many different styles - according to the others, at least. Toph didn't really notice much difference, aside from the stone pagoda that had been added on as part of a brand new third story - apparently fashioned after the architecture of the Air Temples to help the Avatar feel at home, complete with a large, open air stable for Appa to sleep in.

Levitating a large, coin-shaped stone disc into the air, Toph shifted her weight slightly and swung her right hand in a diagonal chopping motion. Once she threw the disc, she could no longer feel it, as it was in the air. But she knew that she had judged the angle perfectly, and indeed the earthbender was soon rewarded with the loud, satisfying CRUNCH of the disc impacting the right-most pillar (and she could feel the disc again, and she felt it fracture and break apart, the separate chunks of splintered rock disappearing from her perception again until they hit the ground).

She focused her attention entirely on the loud smashing of rock against rock, doing her best to drown the scene of Sokka seated on a chair in his room, holding what was probably a paint brush in his hand as his heart thudded audibly in his chest, most likely because of Suki, who was lying naked on the teen's bed in what Toph vaguely understood as a seductive pose. The crippled pillar toppled, impacting the next in line, and with minimal guidance from Toph the pillars fell one after the other in a great cacophony, each knocking pillar knocking down the next, like they were just big, weirdly-shaped dominoes.

Just as Toph was getting ready to set up for the next round, though, she felt a familiar, fuzzy weight land on her shoulder.

"Oh. Hey Momo," she greeted, a little surprised that the lemur was there. The last she knew, it had been with...

That was when Toph felt Appa set down on the roof of the house behind her.

"Huh. Twinkletoes and Sugar Queen must be back," she said to herself. "I wonder how their trip went?"

As if in response, Momo proceeded to chitter and squeak in her ear.

"You don't say," she commented, as though she could actually understand what Momo was saying and _didn't_ hear nothing but gibberish.

Not that one could reasonably expect anything more from a flying lemur - they were intelligent, sure, but not nearly _that_ intelligent.

Then Toph felt Katara's weight land on the stone, rooftop pavilion as the girl dismounted from Appa (trying hard, again, to focus on anything but the scene in Sokka's room) before making her way across the roof and eventually down the stairs. For a moment, Toph considered heading inside to greet the older girl, but then she decided against it.

She'd much rather be out here, where she could keep her mind busy with earthbending practice.

So Toph shifted into her next stance. She held her hands out, palms facing the ground, and stretched out the joints in her fingers, causing them to pop and crack. This sound was mirrored in stereo surround by the ground at Toph's feet, the surface of which she could feel warping and buckling as she _reached_ her earthbending deep into the ground.

Toph could practically feel the earth between her fingers as she lowered her hands as far as her arms could reach, before curling her fingers into twin, tiny fists and quickly rocketing them back up, as high as she could reach. She felt a giddy sensation in her stomach as the ground beneath her toes began to shift and crack. The could feel the air breathing against her face as she used her earthbending to raise up a small, rocky hill. Its highest point was almost equal to their house's roof, and its base stretched nearly to the furthest borders of the rock garden.

This was a power-building exercise she had recently devised. The idea behind it was to move as much earth as possible as far as she could manage in a single movement. By doing this, she could theoretically train herself to be able to bend progressively, incrementally larger amounts of earth with minimal undue effort - because although it was _theoretically_ possible to lift even a mountain so long you could build up enough momentum in your chi, this would usually involved a looooong sequence of movements as you went through multiple earthbending kata, during which you would effectively be a sitting turtle duck. But by training up the amount of force she could exert with a given amount of bending, Toph could move larger rocks with less effort than other earthbenders, and this could open up a whole new world of possibilities for her bending.

In fact, Toph had gotten the idea from Aang's old friend, Bumi, the king of Omashu. The old geezer was probably the only earthbender in the entire world that Toph could accept as an equal. While Toph was a prodigy with a unique style of earthbending, as well as the only metalbender in the world, which helped her really stand out from the crowd as a truly exceptional bender, King Bumi used a much more standard and traditional style that was taught all across the Earth Kingdom, but he distinguished himself by just being _so damn good at it_ , as well as using it in ways most could never even think of.

It was very rare that Toph could honestly say something complimentary about another earthbender's ability, but Bumi was someone she could genuinely respect. Seriously, the guy could earthbend _with his face_. She hadn't even thought something like that was physically possible. Not until she'd met him.

Toph understood completely why the crazy old coot had been Aang's first choice for an earthbending teacher. _She_ wouldn't have minded taking a few lessons from that magnificent bastard, and in her mind that was pretty much the highest compliment she could pay to any earthbender, anywhere.

And speaking of Aang, Toph felt the airbender land next to her on the impromptu hill, touching down on the ground so lightly that she still had trouble believing it was physically possible. She also felt Katara inside the building, and it seemed the girl was heading straight for...

"Hey, Toph," said Aang, greeting his earthbending teacher. But then the girl suddenly ducked down and covered her ears, and Aang wondered what she was doing.

He kept on wondering right up until he heard Katara's shrill, horrified scream pierce the air, followed by similarly high-pitched cries from Sokka and Suki.

And then, Aang just got an awful sort of sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.


	7. In Which Katara is a Little Mean

Katara was a nice person. She was patient, agreeable, caring, and compassionate. Even with a bit of a sharp temper, she was not usually quick to anger, and it took a LOT to get her truly _pissed_.

She did her best to be responsible and mature, because clearly _someone_ in their little group had to be. Katara worked hard to keep herself as understanding, nurturing, and accommodating as humanly possible. It wasn't easy being the nice one in a group that included someone like _Aang_ , but Katara did her best.

She was charitable, kind, slow to anger (if also even slower to forgive), and easily moved to compassion. Some might have said she was a bit emotional at times, and maybe a little violent when she got mad, but Katara was still overall a _good person_.

Heck, she was practically a saint, if she did say so herself. She had to be, to put up with the antics of the people around her, people like Toph and her brother.

But even the godliest, most long-suffering of saints had their breaking point. For Katara, it was...

...Well, she would rather not have it described. But needless to say, it was not something she had expected to walk in on when she had gone into her brother's room to borrow something or other. She could not, for the life of her, remember _what_ it was that she had needed, but seeing the scene before her, some small part of Katara wondered if maybe she couldn't have done _without_ whatever it was she had come for.

Quite understandably, she let out a shriek at the sight of Suki and Sokka in such a... _compromising_ position, even if the two quickly moved to hide their shame, echoing Katara's scream with cries of their own.

"What the hell, Katara?!" Sokka yelped, red-faced as he grabbed a book to hide his more private parts.

"I should be saying the same to you!" Katara snapped, red-tinged cheeks mirroring the flush in her brother's face. "Seriously! What the _hell_ , Sokka?!"

"I-It's not what it looks like," squeaked Suki, pulling the covers on Sokka's bed up and over her naked body. "I was just modeling for him, honest! I was helping him with his anatomy!" she anxiously explained.

Katara, gave Suki a dark look. Her brow was furrowed and her lips were curled into a scowl as she glowered at the older girl.

"Yes, I'll bet you _were_ ," she said snidely, distaste evident in her tone. She muttered " _harlot,_ " under her breath, spitting the word out with disgust.

Suki winced, hearing Katara's muttered remark. She grimaced weakly, as though she had tried to smile but failed.

"And YOU, Sokka!" Katara snapped, rounding once more on her brother. "How _dare you!_ " She glared at him, dark lips curled back in a snarl. "You're always getting on my case about kissing Aang, but here you are doing... _this!_ " she spat. "You are just the biggest, most hypocritical... ARRRGH! I can't stand it! You are the most infuriating brother in the world!"

Sokka winced at first, but he quickly recovered from Katara's tongue-lashing, and he rejoined with, "I don't care if you're kissing him! I just don't want you doing it where I can see it!"

"And you _aren't_ doing THIS where _I_ can see it?" Katara retorted hotly.

"No!" snapped Sokka indignantly. "I'm _not_. This is MY room, in case you've forgotten! You came in without even _knocking!_ "

Katara's ears were by this point so red that it seemed almost that they could have been seen even in the dark. She was grinding her teeth and clenching and unclenching her fists, glaring death at her brother.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" she retaliated, unwilling to accept defeat in this argument. "It's just the fact that you're even _doing_ this sort of thing at all! You two aren't even MARRIED! I mean... What would happen if you got her _pregnant_ , you stupid ass?! This is a whole other level of unacceptable!"

There was a moment of tense silence as Katara continued to glare at her brother, who looked very much like he would have preferred to be _anywhere else_ at that moment, naked or not. But then that silence was broken by Suki.

"Katara..." said the Kyoshi Warrior. "I know you're upset, but please calm down. Sokka and I are both adults, and we love one another very much. This isn't just some spur of the moment thing. We've both of us together made a conscious, informed decision to progress our relationship to a deeper level of intimacy. I know it seems unfair to you, but you and Aang are still just kids, and-"

" _-THAT'S NOT WHAT I'M ANGRY ABOUT!_ " Katara roared furiously, rounding on Suki. Her eyes were wide and her temples were throbbing. " _AND I DON'T NEED SOME FILTHY **KYOSHI BRIDE** LECTURING **ME** ON RELATIONSHIPS!_ "

Suki recoiled, as though Katara had physically struck her. She shrank back from the furious waterbender, unwilling to meet the younger girl's eyes. And just when it seemed that things could not possibly get any more uncomfortable, Aang appeared, staff at the ready and wind swirling around him.

"Don't worry! I finally made it-!" he started to say, only to then stop talking when his brain finally registered the scene his eyes were showing him. The staff dropped from his hand, and his mouth fell open in a little 'o'.

What followed was a moment of silence so complete that, were someone to drop a pin to the floor, it would sound like a cacophony on the level of a collapsing building. Then Katara shook her head and gave Aang a look before storming out of the room.

Another silence.

"Sooo..." said Aang awkwardly, looking from Sokka who was concealing his crotch behind a book to Suki who was gripping the sheets tightly to her frame, eyes downcast and stormy. "...What just happened?"

"Well, Aang," said Sokka, "When a man and a woman love each other _very much_ _-_ "

"I already know about sex, Sokka," Aang replied bluntly. "I was talking about Katara. I thought I heard her scream?"

"You did," Suki answered. "She walked in on us while we were... you know... and there was sort of a fight. She was very... angry."

"Oh," said Aang, looking distinctly uncomfortable. "I see... I suppose I should probably go to her. See if I can't calm her down."

"Yes," said Sokka. " _Please_." He then paused. "Just... don't do it where I can see, okay? Knowing the two of you, it'll probably end in another kiss-fest, and I'm _really_ not in the mood to see that. Y'understand?"

Aang nodded.

"Yeah," he said, before turning around. "I'll leave the two of you to your... well, you know."

He then left, shutting the door behind him.

A moment of silence passed between Sokka and Suki.

"Well," said the Water Tribe teen glumly, "I'm pretty sure the moment couldn't possibly be deader."

"Yeah..." said Suki softly, quietly. She was not looking Sokka in the eyes. "Maybe you should..."

"Put on some pants?" Sokka supplied.

"Yes, thank you," she said, a sad smile on her facee. "And I'll get dressed as well."

Suki was about to get up out of the bed when she felt a weight settle down on the end next to her. Sokka softly, comfortingly laid a hand on her shoulder. It was warm and calloused.

"Hey," said Sokka quietly, meeting his girlfriend's eyes. "Need to talk? You look upset."

Suki smiled weakly, shaking her head. "No, Sokka..." she said. "I'm fine. Honest."

Sokka smirked playfully at her. "Yes, you _are_ fine," he said, growling suggestively. But then his composure became more serious. "But you don't sound okay. Katara didn't mean any of what she said, you know. She was... well, mostly I think she was just mad at me. Because I am just so much fun to hate."

He smiled self-deprecatingly, eliciting a little bit of a giggle from Suki.

"You really are," Suki agreed sarcastically, before shaking her head, her smile dimming again. "But I'm alright, Sokka. It's nothing. Katara... I know she didn't really mean any of it. She's a sweet kid. Nothing like her brother."

She punched Sokka playfully in the arm, causing him to laugh.

"C'mon," he said, "We really should get dressed."

Suki smiled.

* * *

Toph sighed as she listened to the conversation going on across the yard from her. Katara's blow up at Sokka and Suki had been spectacularly vicious, and the blind earthbender couldn't help but feel a little sympathy for Suki. She knew all too well what it was like to be on the receiving of one of Katara's rants, after all.

The waterbender was a sweetheart most of the time (almost disgustingly so, in Toph's opinion), but when she got mad she could get downright _nasty_.

"Katara..."

"Yes, Aang, I know I overreacted."

Aang winced. "Oh, I don't know... I wouldn't say that, exactly..."

Katara shook her head.

"No, Aang," she said. "There's no need to sugarcoat it. I overreacted."

She sighed, before gritting her teeth and clenching her fists.

"But it just makes me _so mad!_ " she continued angrily. "What right do they have? What right does _she_ have?! Telling me I'm just a kid, while saying that she and Sokka are adults! They're just screwing around! Doesn't she even _care?_ "

"Yes, Katara," said Aang slowly, placing a hand on his girlfriend's shoulder. "She does care. She just... has her own way of showing it."

"You mean seducing my brother and calling me a child?" Katara muttered bitterly. "Yeah, I can just _feel_ the love."

"Well, not _quite_ like how you said it," replied Aang, "But she and Sokka _are_ both adults, aren't they? I mean, I'm pretty sure that's what the whole iceberg dodging ritual was for..."

This time it was Katara who winced. "Okay, yeah, Sokka _is_ a man as far as the Southern Water Tribe is concerned, but he hardly acts like it! He's still such a kid."

"Is he?" Aang asked. "I mean, I know he likes to play and joke around with me and Toph and Momo, but that doesn't make him childish. Monk Gyatso l _oved_ playing around and telling jokes, and he was _ancient_."

"But, Sokka..." Katara said weakly. "Sokka's not like that. He's still..."

She sighed morosely.

"He plans to marry Suki, you know," said Aang. "He told me all about how he's already got the whole wedding ceremony planned out in his head." He tapped a finger against his arrow tattoo. "I know you still feel like you need to take care of him, but Sokka's grown a lot. He doesn't need his little sister watching out for him all the time, now."

He brushed his hand against one of Katara's, taking hold of it and squeezing softly, comfortingly. Katara blushed faintly, softly smiling. There was a moment of silence between them, before Katara whispered.

"Aang... How much do you know about the Kyoshi Warriors?" she asked him. "Because I've heard rumors, here and there... and, well, what if Sokka _can't_ marry Suki?"

The young Avatar shrugged. "Does it matter?" he asked her. "If they really love each other, then that's all they need."

"But what if she breaks his heart?" Katara asked. "You know how Sokka is. He's so emotional, and he gets so invested in stuff. I _still_ hear him mourning that space sword of his sometimes, when he thinks nobody is around. And he _still_ gets depressed during full moons. If Suki breaks his heart, Aang... I don't care if she's a friend. He was my brother before he was her girlfriend, and if she hurts him I will hurt her twice as bad in return."

"Sokka's lucky to have such a loving sister," Aang said. "But I'm sure you won't need to hurt anyone. Suki loves Sokka as much as I love you," he said, blushing brightly and squeezing Katara's hand a little tighter. "She wouldn't hurt him any more than Toph or I would."

"I still don't trust her," Katara muttered darkly. "How can she act so lovey-dovey with him when she's... you know, sworn to Kyoshi?"

"You're letting worry cloud your mind, Katara. Avatar Kyoshi wouldn't have forbidden anyone from loving," Aang said firmly. "Even if I don't see eye to eye with her, she's still my past life. No matter what sort of oaths the Kyoshi Warriors might make, I'm certain they're still allowed to love. What would be the point, if they weren't?"

"She DID almost get you boiled in oil, you know," Katara replied.

Aang chuckled awkwardly.

"...Well, I didn't say she was _perfect,_ " he responded sheepishly.

* * *

Neither Aang or Katara noticed when Toph got up and stalked off into the house, grumbling under her breath. She was really not in the mood to hear them go on about Sokka and Suki.

She really wasn't.

Her stomach was knotted unpleasantly as she thought of what the pair had been saying. On the one hand, she knew what Katara was saying, and under other circumstances she might have been inclined to agree with the girl. But she couldn't quite bring herself to side entirely with Katara - not in this case. Even though she knew where the waterbender was coming from, she also knew that - if nothing else - Suki really _did_ love Sokka, and Sokka loved Suki. Both of them were one hundred percent serious.

Oh, it galled her, at times, to think of how the Kyoshi Warrior had swooped into their lives and taken Toph's chances at... well, nothing she would admit. Not aloud.

But still.

Toph felt sorry for Suki, at least in this case. She knew how hard it was to get in Katara's good books once you were on her bad side - just ask Zuko - and also knew that, at least for this once, Katara had not been in the right. Not really.

That was not to say that Toph might not have said similar things if she had been in Katara's place - she probably would have been far meaner, nastier, for reasons she would never admit to out loud. She certainly knew countless, exponentially more _colorful_ invectives (it was amazing what people would say when they thought no one could hear them), and she would not have hesitated to throw all but the harshest, cruelest ones at that _floozy_. _  
_

But still.

With the benefit of her current perspective on the matter - having heard the argument go down without actually being involved, and having been able to sense how each party reacted - Toph could not help but feel sympathy for Suki. Heck, in another lifetime maybe it could have been _her_ who had been caught by Katara - not that she would ever actually want to do something like _that_ with _Sokka_ , she insisted silently to herself in spite of the growing blush spreading from her ears to her chest, but hypothetically speaking.

In another lifetime it could have been her, or so Toph told herself vainly, hopefully. It could have been her who was caught by Katara, then berated and insulted. She could have been the one Katara cursed and derided for doing something like _that_ with her brother. Somehow, in some world or other, it could have been her.

So Toph felt sorry for Suki, as strange a notion as that might seem. And perhaps this, more than anything else, was what led her to where the girl was sitting, by herself, outside Appa's massive stable, perhaps watching the gigantic bison sleep. Sokka, she could tell from the vibrations, was going through sword kata in his little training area off to the side of the house. Probably working off his frustrations by swinging around that heavy, sword-shaped hunk of wood he had taking to practicing with.

Shaking her head, trying to clear it of the thoughts of how _interestingly_ Sokka's muscles coiled and released as he went through the motions with an almost uncharacteristic grace and fluidity, Toph took a seat next to Suki. She plopped herself down on the thick stone floor, crossing her legs and putting her hands on her knees.

"Hey," she said, casually greeting the older girl. "You wanna talk?"

Suki gave a start, surprised out of her dismal reverie by Toph's words, but then she smiled softly. She knew that she had told Sokka that she was fine, but she also knew that he knew that she really wasn't. But he had understood what went unsaid, and he'd gone to practice, to give her some space to think.

She knew that she had been reluctant to talk to her boyfriend about this, but she also knew on some level that talking would probably help.

She had not wanted to talk about it with Sokka, feeling like it would have been too uncomfortable to discuss with him, but maybe Toph would understand. She was a girl too, after all.

"Sure..." said Suki slowly. "I'd like that. I really would."

* * *


	8. Setting the Fuse

Toph Bei Fong was good at many things. She was a brilliant earthbender: a prodigy, and perhaps the most talented in generations. She was also exceedingly proficient in the courtesies and manners of high society, having been raised as the only daughter of the wealthy Bei Fong family. She was a natural at insults and witty remarks, and she could joke around with the best of them.

She had many skills, both widely varied and finely honed, but there was at least one thing she was NOT good at.

_Girl talk._

Oh, she had no difficulty with other kinds of talk, be it _trash_ or _guy_ or even _small_ , but Toph simply had no experience with being a girl. She could be anything from a demure, sophisticated, high society woman to a crass, crude, shameless one-of-the-guys. She had experience with those things, and could do them well.

But Toph had very little experience with just being a _girl._ As a child, she never had any friends her own age, never learned the subtle nuances of casual interaction with other females. Her parents taught her everything about how to be a _lady_ and a _bride_ (the latter she had especially resented), but they had never thought to let her learn how to be a normal girl. The only things she learned about being feminine, were learned in the context of high society and nobility and how to be a proper wife - these stifling, repressive mores and traditions, whereby she was expected to be soft and meek and helpless.

She would need to know these things for when she became a bride, she had been told as a child. When the time came, she would be expected to do her _duty_ and submit herself as a flawless little doll to the highest bidder. This was what she had been taught from an early age.

And from the very beginning, she had resented it. She came, in some small part, to associate the concept of femininity with weakness, helplessness, passivity - things she despised with every fiber of her being. She REFUSED to be like this, she told herself in the silence of night. She would not be weak. She would not be helpless. She would not just sit back and passively let others rule her life.

So when Toph began to rebel, silently, unknown to her parents, she did not choose to go out and find other girls her age. She had no reason to _want_ to. She knew nothing about what other girls would be like - what if they were just what her parents wanted _her_ to be like? No, she wanted to distance herself from such things, remove herself as far as humanly possible from the concept of a helpless little girl.

So she practiced the earthbending she had learned from the badger moles, trained herself to become _strong_. Because in a life where everything was dictated for her, a life where she felt so powerless to shape her own destiny, earthbending was the one area where _she_ was the one in control. For a young girl who had always been told what to do by others, never having any real say in anything, being able to enforce her will on the earth itself, having the power to move and shape otherwise unyielding stone to her desire, was liberating.

And so she threw herself into earthbending, spent every free moment away from her minders honing her skills. Toph put so many hours, so much blood, sweat, and tears into her training, that before she knew it she had far outstripped the vast majority of earthbenders. Because for her it wasn't just a weapon, something to use in a fight - no, it was a way of life, a way to "see" the world. She used it in some manner every minute of every day, continually strengthening her bond with her element. Soon enough, she found that earthbending came to her almost as easily as breathing, and she began to get curious about how good a bender she really was... So, one year, Toph secretly entered herself into Earth Rumble V.

The rest, as they say, was history.

But, getting back to the matter at hand, Toph just wasn't good at girl talk. She had almost no experience with it, and for the longest time she'd had no inclination to change this. Except now she found herself trying to talk to Suki, and comfort the girl. It was not easy.

Though on the other hand, what better way to learn than by first hand experience? Everybody had to start _somewhere_ , after all.

* * *

"So," said Toph after a moment of silence between her and Suki. "You have anything in particular you wanna talk about, or should we just get straight to the point?"

Toph could feel the Kyoshi Warrior turn to stare at her, and she fought the urge to grimace as she heard the awkward silence return with a vengeance. So much for this going smoothly, she thought. At this rate they would never get to anything. Not if they kept sitting there and beating around the bush.

But, hey, she was an earthbender. She did better with blunt and direct anyways.

"Katara can be kind of a bitch, wouldn't you say?" she said, and she felt Suki next to her wince.

"I don't know," said Suki. "I wouldn't say that. She was just angry, right? Sure her words might have been... hurtful," she reluctantly conceded, "but she didn't mean anything by them. Not really. She was just upset."

"Well _sure_ , if you want to be _mature_ about it," Toph scoffed. "But where's the fun in that?"

Suki giggled a little bit at this.

"Maturity is its own reward," she said, and Toph could hear the small hint of a smile in her tone. "There's a lot to be said for moral victory, and being the bigger person."

"Have you been spending time with Aang?" asked Toph, cocking an eyebrow. "Seriously, you're sounding just like him. It's downright _uncanny_."

She felt Suki's face stretch into a wider grin.

"Thank you," said the older girl brightly. "I try."

Toph shook her head. "I'm _surrounded_ by weirdos," she muttered in a theatrically exasperated tone, before shaking her head and saying, more soberly, "But seriously, though. I saw what happened."

" _Really?_ " said Suki, and Toph could hear the amusement in the girl's voice.

Toph huffed, cheeks heating up under the feeling of Suki's gaze.

"You know what I mean," said the blind earthbender testily.

But then she sighed.

"Katara really got to you, didn't she." It wasn't a question.

Suki nervously looked away, even though rationally she knew Toph could not see it. She was silent, unsure what to say to this. Toph had hit closer to the mark than the warrior would have liked to admit.

She sighed.

"I know it's silly," said the older girl, "but it really... _hurts_ to hear Katara disapproving of my and Sokka's relationship. Especially when she's doing so vehemently."

Toph shrugged. "What'd I say?" she said. "Katara can be kind of a bitch when she's mad."

"That doesn't make her point any less valid," Suki responded.

"What point?" asked Toph, quirking an eyebrow curiously. "All I heard was ' _blah blah you're a whore blah_ '."

Toph felt Suki tense up, facial muscles twisting the older girl's expression into a grimace. The Kyoshi Warrior exhaled through grit teeth with a faint sort of hissing sound.

"I suppose certainly I must seem like one, though..." said the young girl morosely, self consciously, and Toph could have smacked herself on the forehead for her faux pas. "I've been practically throwing myself at her brother ever since he rescued me from the Boiling Rock..."

Toph scoffed, almost in spite of herself.

"Oh, what is this?!" she demanded irritably, smacking a hand down on the floor and causing a just-barely-noticeable tremor to run through the building. "Are you done feeling sorry for yourself?"

Suki was startled by this sudden occurrence, and she whipped her head around to stare at Toph owlishly.

"Toph...?"

The blind, younger girl shook her head. "Seriously, since when have you been such a pushover? Just because Katara threw a little hissy fit, you're questioning your relationship with Sokka? No way! I will NOT allow that!" she declared firmly. "Who took out your spine? I don't remember you being so weak back at the Serpent's Pass. What happened to the sexy, badass leader of the Kyoshi Warriors?! I refuse to believe that you could have won Sokka's heart by being such a _fucking whiny pussy!_ "

Suki nearly choked at Toph's vulgar choice of words, but she was also rather shamefaced. Again, the young girl was hitting painfully close to home, and Suki could not help but think about what she was saying.

She sighed sadly.

"Did you know, Toph, who it was that captured me and my warriors? Who it was who sent me to the Boiling Rock?"

Toph stopped right in her tracks. Belatedly, she remembered a certain conversation that had happened during the Day of Black Sun.

" _Azula..._ " she breathed, the tiniest hint of horror in her voice. "Oh, _Suki_..."

Toph felt the weight of Suki's head shift on the girl's shoulders as she nodded. She didn't even need her earthbending sense to envision the sad smile on Suki's face.

"From the look on your face," said Suki weakly, "I take it that you heard the story straight from the serpent's mouth."

Toph nodded, suddenly uncertain what to say. This was much harsher terrain than she had expected to navigate going into the conversation, but she would not turn back now. _When the going gets tough, the Toph gets going_ \- that was a saying she had come up with herself, though she never actually used it out loud.

"Yeah..." she said slowly, recalling the painful memories of that day. "During the invasion, near the end of the eclipse, we ran into Azula while looking for the Fire Lord. She... we had subdued her and were going on our way, when she called out to us. _' _So, Sokka's your name, right? My favorite prisoner used to mention you all the time.'_ _ That was what she said."

"Yes... I remember, now," Suki murmured, "She told me about it herself, one day, shortly after the eclipse. Came to gloat, I suppose..."

Suki sighed sadly. "She told me what she said to you guys, you know. _' _She was convinced you were going to come rescue her. Of course you never came, and she gave up on you.'__ "

"We didn't believe her for a second," Toph insisted firmly. "Azula always lies."

"No..." whispered Suki, "Not always. Not when she doesn't need to..."

And suddenly things were starting to make a lot more sense to Toph.

"This really isn't about what Katara said at all, is it?" said the earthbender shrewdly.

"It is, and it isn't," Suki replied. "Even by itself, what Katara said was still hurtful, and yet... I can't help but think back to how quickly I gave up on Sokka, back then. How readily I began to doubt him. She's a horrible person, Azula... It was terrifying how she could always find some way to break down my defenses, how she always seemed to know exactly where to strike to make me crumble.

"I think the only reason she didn't break me completely was because she had more fun knocking me down every time I tried to pick myself back up. I was like a toy to her. She didn't even have to lay a finger on me... I felt so powerless. No matter how many times I defied her, no matter how hard I resisted, she always managed to..."

Suki trailed off, her voice weak. Whatever Azula always managed to do, it sounded like it was too painful for Suki to say. It must have been awful, being at that monster's mercy for so long.

"She really hurt you, didn't she...?" said Toph, placing a hand on Suki's shoulder.

"Yeah... She was such a horrible person..." said the girl, clearly fighting back the urge to break down in tears.

Toph was quiet for a moment, before she got up and pulled the taller Suki to her feet with her.

"You know what you need?" she asked rhetorically, deciding to take it on herself to help Suki out of this bloody funk. "A night out on the town."

She turned her face to Suki, letting the girl see a wide, devilish grin that split the Blind Bandit's face from ear to ear.

"And who knows?" she continued, "Maybe the place will even still be standing when we're finished!"

Toph laughed mischievously, and Suki could not help the sensation infecting her a little as well, a bit of impish glee spreading out from her ribs and down to her toes. She smirked, looking rather vulpine as her eyes gleamed with untold plots of madness and mayhem.

Kyoshi knows it wouldn't be constructive, but Suki'd be _damned_ if she couldn't do with some catharsis.

"Just the two of us against the world!" Suki all but cackled.

"Or Ba Sing Se, at least," added Toph, looking not the slightest bit displeased with this.

And the two of them set off to paint the town red.

* * *

Meanwhiled, Chief Hakoda of the Southern Water Tribe, the famed White Wolf, was sitting in his hall when he got the letter - not an igloo, but an honest to goodness _hall._ Their long estranged brothers from the North Pole had done much already in the way of helping them rebuild, raising greater, taller walls of ice and snow, and building what they had insisted was a proper dwelling for the tribal chief and his family.

The structure was more of a palace than a house, or at least it seemed that way to the Southern Tribesmen and women, and it was impressive by all accounts, even if still considerably humbler than the hall of the Northern Tribe's chieftain. It was tall, with a whole two stories - something that had been unheard of in the South Pole for a very long time - and long, with a great hall and several various rooms and chambers to accommodate the family of the chief, as well as any guests. It had an exterior of solid ice, shaped by Master Pakku (or should he call the man _Father_ , now?) and the other Northern Tribe waterbenders, while the interior was furnished with wood from the Earth Kingdom, plus the hides of many great beasts and an assortment of decorative weapons both exotic and traditional.

When one of the tribesmen came in with the letter, a Fire Nation messenger hawk perched on his shoulder, he was understandably impressed by the appearance of Chief Hakoda's hall. Construction of the building had only recently finished, and few had yet had the chance to see inside the completed structure.

Indeed, there were only a couple of people present in the hall at that moment aside from Hakoda himself - namely, Bato, his right-hand man, as well his mother, Kanna, and his step-father, Pakku - so the messenger's presence was immediately noticed.

"Welcome, Narook!" said Bato heartily, turning his attention from the simple lunch he had been partaking in with his chief and old friend to greet the fellow warrior. "I suppose you are here with news from the merchants?"

He referred, of course, to the ship of Earth Kingdom traders who had weighed anchor just off the frozen coast outside the village earlier that morning, having come with some store of various trade goods in hopes of bartering for various goods.

"Yes, and no," the man answered, bowing shortly in a show of respect. He was shorter than Bato or Hakoda, and slightly bow-legged, but he was also stockier of build, with broad shoulders and thick arms, strong and solid. His hair was held up in a warrior's wolf tail, and his square jaw was lined with a thin, black beard. "There _is_ some news from the merchants, but that is not why I came here."

He indicated the messenger hawk on his shoulder, which had an empty scroll case tied to its leg, before addressing his leader.

"This hawk arrived just minutes ago bearing a letter for you, Chief Hakoda," Narook explained. "It bears the seal of the Bei Fong family, from the Earth Kingdom."

Hakoda's eyebrows shot up into his hairline at this. He had heard of the Bei Fong family, and he knew that they were very wealthy, and _very_ powerful. The Bei Fong name had considerable cloud in and around the Earth Kingdom, and a message from them could potentially mean very good things for the Southern Water Tribe, which had been greatly weakened and diminished over the course of the Hundred Year War.

"What does it say?" he inquired, curiosity piqued.

"I don't know," Narook replied. "I assumed it was meant for your eyes only." He then grabbed the scroll, elaborate wax seal still intact, and presented it to Hakoda, who accepted it before politely dismissing the man, who departed with another short bow.

There was a moment of silence as Hakoda broke the seal, unfurling the scroll.

"I wonder what Bei Fong family could want with you?" Bato wondered aloud as Hakoda started to skim the document.

"Perhaps they wish to discuss the terms of a possible future trade agreement," suggested Pakku, who had up until then been quietly enjoying a bowl of stewed squid. "They _are_ a merchant family, after all."

Hakoda hummed thoughtfully, only half-listening as he delved through lengthy sections of empty flattery and meaningless pleasantries in search of something actually important. It took a while, but the writer of the letter _did_ eventually get to the point, and when they did Hakoda had to say that he was perhaps blindsided by it a little more than he should have been. But hindsight was 20/20, as they say, and looking back through the earlier sections of the letter, Hakoda did indeed find several points where it had been hinted rather strongly.

Still, though, it caught him off balance.

"Huh," said the Southern Water Tribe Chief. "I was not expecting _that._ "

"Oh?" said his mother, Kanna. "What is it, Hakoda?"

"A marriage proposal. They seek to arrange a marriage between their daughter and... my son."

Bato raised an eyebrow curiously. "Oh? Did you have another son we don't know about, or are you actually talking about Sokka?" he said, half-jokingly.

Hakoda laughed. "Hey, now!" he said, "I'll have you know that our little Sokka has grown into a serious lady-killer, just like his father was before him."

"Well, now, we _definitely_ can't be talking about the same person," said Bato teasingly. "Kya hooked up with you mostly out of pity, you know!"

Hakoda smirked. "But my sheer animal magnetism still played a very important part," he said insistently, a broad grin on his face.

The two probably would have gone on like this for a while, but they were stopped by Pakku stepping forward and snatching up the letter to peruse it himself. The expression on his face showed that he was entirely unamused by his step-son's antics, though Kanna was smiling indulgently behind him.

Hakoda and Bato, for their parts, only looked a little sheepish as they fell silent and allowed the master waterbender to read in peace. After a couple of minutes, the man finished, and he had a thoughtful expression on his face.

"Interesting," he said. "Very interesting. I notice they addressed you as ' _his majesty Chief Hakoda of the White Wolf Dynasty,_ ' and your children as ' _Prince Sokka the Brave_ ' and ' _Princess Katara the Mighty_ '."

His tone was dry, and Hakoda looked a little more sheepish now. Kanna smiled brightly, though, and she laughed softly, the sound like clear running water.

"It has been very long indeed since a son of the Southern Water Tribe has been called a prince, or a daughter a princess," she said almost wistfully. "Not since the days of Fire Lord Azulon, at the very least."

Pakku's expression softened at this, and a small smile found its way onto his face. "But perhaps times are changing," he said contemplatively. "Sokka and Katara did many great things during the war, and in the company of Avatar Aang. Certainly, their deeds have earned them much acclaim on the world stage. Enough even to legitimize them as royalty, perhaps, considering also the deeds of their father, Chief Hakoda."

He nodded respectfully in his step-son's direction, and Hakoda reciprocated the gesture.

"But, more importantly," Pakku continued, "there also is the matter of their offer to consider. This marriage proposal..." He paused, glancing briefly back at his wife, who smiled and nodded, understanding in her expression. He then continued, "...well, even if things are not traditionally done this way in the Southern Water Tribe, it is nonetheless an offer that should be considered very carefully."

Bato quirked an eyebrow at this.

"How so?" he asked.

"I think he means," said Hakoda, jumping in to explain, "that even if arranged marriages are unconventional here, they are a common practice in many parts of the world. Usually as a way to secure alliances between families, right?"

Pakku nodded. "Yes, political marriages are not at all uncommon among the upper classes of the Earth Kingdom, and it is not unheard of for a person's spouse to have been chosen them while they were still only infants." He paused again, before continuing more cautiously. "I... understand that some may have certain... reservations... about arranging a marriage in such a way, but there is also the future of the Southern Water Tribe to consider."

Kanna was silent, her expression peaceful.

"I think I understand what you're talking about," said Bato slowly. "Even with the aid of our sister tribe in the north, our tribe is still a far cry from what it used to be like in better days. Compared to the Earth Kingdom or the Fire Nation, we just don't have much in the way of _anything_ , besides snow and ice. And that isn't worth much."

"Indeed," said Pakku. "But this marriage offer, if we accept, could go a very long way toward ensuring a better future for the Southern Water Tribe. The assets of the Bei Fong family, and their numerous preferential trade agreements with families all over the world, would be a great boon to the tribe, and would do much also to increase its standing in the world at large."

"But is it the right thing to do?" Kanna interjected sagely. "No matter how greatly this marriage might benefit us personally, or even the tribe as a whole, I cannot in good conscience arrange a union between my grandson and someone he has never met - I could not in good conscience consent to that to anyone, unless I knew they would be happy together. The Southern Water Tribe has always valued _love_ in marriage, above all else."

At this, she smiled softly at Pakku, and he smiled back at her in understanding.

Hakoda though, looked thoughtful.

"Well," he said, after a moment of quiet thought. "it is not as though the Bei Fong's daughter is a stranger to Sokka - quite the opposite, actually. Toph Bei Fong was one of Sokka and Katara's companions, and the Avatar's earthbending instructor. I met her after Sokka and Fire Lord Zuko (well he wasn't the Fire Lord at the time, but you know what I mean) broke me out of the Boiling Rock. She and Sokka are very close, actually. They're both fond of each other, as friends if nothing else."

At this, Kanna looked considering.

"I see..." she said slowly. "...But would they be happy together?"

Hakoda frowned thoughtfully, contemplating. He reviewed everything he remembered of his son's interactions with the young earthbender (pointedly overlooking the matter of the Kyoshi Warrior, Suki). The two were headstrong and stubborn, in their own individual ways, but they got along famously, all things considered. He knew that neither would probably be very happy with the idea of an arranged marriage, if only out of principle, and Katara probably would not take it well either, but Hakoda had a hunch.

Even with how they had grown and changed, he knew his children well. Sokka, in particular. The boy was a man, now, and Hakoda knew that Sokka was smart, and would be able to understand why such an arrangement would be beneficial. He was clever and adaptable, if also emotional, and the young warrior had an almost inexplicable way with women.

Hakoda was also perceptive, and he had noticed the way young Toph had occasionally acted around Sokka. There was a seed of something there, he could tell. Perhaps it was just a girlhood crush, but Hakoda had a feeling in his gut, a feeling that there was more to it than that, and he had learned to trust his instincts.

He could not honestly say that either one would take it well, at first, but Hakoda had a hunch, all the same. He had a hunch that, if nothing else, the two could learn to love one another - assuming they did not already, on some level. As it was, though, the two of them were so close that they were already practically joined at the hip. Had it not been for the presence of Suki, Hakoda knew he probably would have assumed that the two were already together, to some extent or other.

It would be for the best, really. It wasn't as though Suki would be able to make an honest man of his son, not if half the tales he'd heard about the Kyoshi Warriors were true. He knew his son would probably feel betrayed by this, but it was for the best, for both his son and the tribe. Hakoda was sure of this.

He knew his duty as a chief and a father.

"...Yes," he said finally, "I believe they would be happy together. I truly do. They might be... reluctant... at first, but I daresay there is already love between them."

His mother smiled.

"Then I will trust your judgment on this matter," Kanna said. "If you believe they can truly be happy together, then I have no objections. I will go along with whatever you decide, Chief Hakoda."

Pakku and Bato both nodded in agreement with this.

Hakoda nodded in understanding, and he grabbed a brush, some ink, and a blank sheet of his finest parchment, before beginning to write his response.


	9. The Haangover

There was nothing quite like waking up in a strange, dimly lit place with a dry mouth and a splitting headache. Suki could now attest to this from personal experience.

"Nnngghh," the leader of the Kyoshi Warriors groaned miserably as she blinked open teary, itchy eyes. "What happened...?" she wondered out loud to herself, before wincing as she felt a spear of molten agony lance through her brain. " _Owwww_ , my aching..."

Suki cut off with a grimace, her own whispered words echoing in her sinus and rebounded off the sides of her brain cavity. She put a hand to her forehead, exhaling in a hiss through grit teeth. Her jaw was clenched as she tried to fight off the pain, as well as the accompanying nausea and sense of vertigo.

"About time you woke up, Sleeping Beauty," came the coarse, girlish voice of her cellmate.

Suki blinked.

Wait? _Cellmate?_

Suki stared around at her surroundings, bemused. Blinking as her sore, teary, bloodshot eyes slowly adjusted to the dim, green lighting provided by small glow crystals hanging down from the ceiling of a hallway or aisle at regular intervals, the young amazon realized she _was_ in a cell.

A wooden prison cell, of all things. It looked like nothing she had seen back at the Boiling Rock, which had been her only real prior experience with captivity or imprisonment, but there was no mistaking this place for anything _but_ a jail.

At least, Suki thought belatedly, _hopefully_ it was just a jail. Because she knew of other, worse things that it could also be, but she did not relish the thought of these alternatives. At least in prison you could usually expect to be let out once you served your sentence.

...whatever her sentence _was_. Or her crime, for that matter.

Suki felt a little nervous about not being able to recall whatever it was she must have done to land herself in here, but hopefully it hadn't been anything too bad. The last thing she could clearly remember was her conversation with Toph, and everything after that was kind of a blur.

"What happened...?" she wondered, sitting up and turning to face her cellmate.

It was, as she had expected, the Blind Bandit herself, Toph Bei Fong. The girl was sporting a split lip and matching shiners, as well as a few cuts and scrapes across her short, slender arms and legs, but she was nonetheless grinning like the cat-owl that caught the sparrow-keet.

"Girl's night out," Toph replied simply, looking all too pleased with herself as she sat cross-legged on the wood plank floor of their cell. She was beaming as she patted a hand on one of the thick, rectangular bars. "It was _real_ wild," she continued, before smugly observing, "Been a while since they set up the wooden cage just for me."

Suki blinked, unsure how to take this.

"And that's a _good_ thing?" she asked uncertainly.

"It means that I've really outdone myself this time," Toph replied in a self-satisfied tone of voice. "Usually they'd just put me in one of the regular metal cages, 'cause they've got a bunch of those and they work perfectly fine for all of the other earthbenders."

Suki frowned, briefly wincing slightly at the stinging pain this action elicited from a cut on her cheek.

"But can't you bend metal?"

"Yes. Yes I can," Toph answered proudly. "But they usually trust me to at least wait until bail is posted before busting my way out. One of the perks of being a war hero," she smirked.

Suki sighed, though she was smiling, and she softly shook her head in a gesture of friendly exasperation. "So they only wheel out the wooden cell for when they _seriously_ want you locked up," she shrewdly guessed.

"Yup," Toph replied casually, picking a bit of wax from her ear. "Me and Sokka usually have to at least knock down few buildings for them to bring in Ol' Woody here, so I guess you and me must've seriously cut loose last night."

"You and _I_ ," Suki corrected automatically, before glancing down at her body. She breathed a curse at the sight that greeted her. "Kyoshi's sagging _tits_..." she hissed, uncaring of Toph's presence. "What did we _do_ last night?" she wondered. "I look like I got into a fight with a saber tooth moose-lion. And lost." _  
_

Toph shrugged. "Ehhh, it's probably better if I don't say," she replied blandly, flicking a lump of earwax onto the floor of their cell. "I don't think you'd be very happy with it, now that you're sober."

Suki sighed, massaging her temples.

"I got drunk," she muttered. "Of _course_. I went drinking with a blind, twelve year old girl." She swore again, this time much too graphically for it to be included in a T-rated fic. "What was I _thinking?_ "

Toph waved a hand dismissively. "Hey, don't beat yourself up. _I_ was the one who took you to the bar. You just went along with it."

Then she went quiet for a moment, looking as though she was listening for something.

"How long do you think we'll be in here for?" Suki asked Toph a little anxiously, breaking the silence that had settled in between them.

"...not too long, probably," Toph answered after mulling the question over a bit. "Katara usually comes to bail me and Sokka pretty promptly. I think she probably likes to lecture us while our crimes are still fresh in mind, so she never leaves in for more than an hour or two once she learns we've been arrested."

"Er, and how often _have_ you and Sokka been arrested?" Suki inquired a little nervously. She wasn't entirely certain how much she wanted to know of her boyfriend's criminal record, particular in terms of how much of it was shared with the blind earthbender before her.

Just then, a guard walked by.

"Hey, Toph," said the uniformed man, greeting the young girl in a friendly, conversational manner. "Who's your girlfriend?"

"Who, Suki?" Toph asked. "She's Sokka's gal."

The guard's eyebrows popped up, and he gave Suki a second once over. Even looking she had lost a fight with a rabid boarcupine, the young woman was still decidedly stunning.

He let out a low whistle.

"I dunno which I should say is luckier," he said appreciatively, eliciting an awkward smile from Suki. Then he paused, before asking, "Where is that troublemaker, anyway? The way you two are always brought in together, I'd have figured you were joined at the hip."

"Girl's night out," Toph said simply, and the man nodded in understanding.

"Any fun?" the guard asked, and Toph just smirked in response.

"We're in here, aren't we?" she said. "Of course it was."

The man laughed.

"Good point, good point!" he said, before shaking his head. "Well, I've got to get back to my rounds. When you see Sokka, tell him I said hi."

"Sure thing," Toph said. "As long as you say hi to the wife and kids for me."

"Of course, of course," the guard said amicably, bidding the two girls farewell before continuing on.

Suki merely stared, mouth agape.

* * *

It was another half hour of waiting, during which Toph lazily bent her meteorite bracelet into various shapes while Suki sat down and meditated in an attempt to will away her hangover, before a guard finally came to let the two out, informing them that their bail had been posted. Suki let out a relieved sigh at this news, before standing up as the man unlocked the door of their cell.

Toph, hearing this, yawned and got up to her feet.

"So you finally came to bail us out?" she said as she blindly made her way across the cage's wooden plank floor – for her, trying to "see" through wood was like trying to eavesdrop with cotton in your ears. She could make stuff out, but it was all fuzzy and kinda muffled. "About time, Sugar Queen. I was beginning to think you were gonna leave us in here all day."

Suki sweat-dropped at this, not that Toph could see it.

"Er..." came the sound of a voice decidedly unlike Katara's, "Actually, Toph, it's me."

Toph's mouth dropped open just a little, and her ears flushed as she took a step out onto the stone floor of the prison.

"Oh," she murmured, sounding abashed as she let her head fall downwards slightly, long black bangs falling to cover unseeing eyes. "Hi, Snoozles."

Suki laughed weakly at this, looking a little nervous to Sokka's eyes as she followed Toph out of the jail cell.

"So where _is_ Katara, then?" the young woman inquired just a little anxiously, her eyes flitting down the rows of barred, iron doors set into the walls. She knew that most of the cells in Ba Sing Se's prisons were constructed out of metal, for obvious reasons, and it really struck her at that moment just how _out of place_ her and Toph's wooden cell had been.

Sokka cast his glance askance at Suki's question, and a sound somewhere halfway between a yelp and a sigh escaped his lips. Suki could pick out the fain sheen of sweat on her boyfriend's face in the dim, green glow of the earth crystal lamps. It gave him a somehow otherworldly appearance, the light of the phosphorescent mineral formations bathing him in an eerie, almost spectral light.

"Uh... She couldn't come..." he answered evasively, only for Toph to scoff.

"You're not a very good liar, Snoozles. Even without my earthbending I'd know you weren't telling the truth there."

"Ah..." Sokka breathed out through his teeth. "Yes. Er—well, I don't know if I would call it a _complete_ lie..." he quibbled nervously. "But, um... Katara..."

"She's still angry at me," Suki sighed, grimacing.

Sokka blanched. "W-well, that is... it's a little more complicated than that, but... um, _yes._ And also no."

"Mind giving us a straight answer?" Toph asked him.

"Like I said, it's complicated," Sokka reiterated. "She is definitely _not happy_ , and what happened yesterday probably didn't help matters... but, well, she's not exactly over the moon about you winding up in the drunk tank on your first day back here," he explained sheepishly.

Suki winced. " _Great,_ " she muttered. "I've only made things worse, haven't I? She probably hates my guts now."

"N-no! Of course not! No, not at all!" Sokka insisted with a forced, high-pitched laugh. "Ha! Ha! She's just a little testy at the moment, that's all!" He scratched the back of his neck, looking at Suki with weak grin. "I'm sure it'll all blow over if we just give it a day, or two!"

They started off down the hall, and the guard waved after them, before giving a short bow in Sokka's direction. The teen didn't see, though, his back being to the man.

" _Bless your heart_ _, sir,_ " said the guard lowly in a respectful tone, though only Toph could hear it. " _I reckon you'll need it._ " _  
_

Toph shook her head, sighing in a long-suffering manner as she thought about what was to come.

" _This_ should be fun..." she muttered sarcastically.

* * *

As a matter of fact, it really wasn't.

"I can't _believe_ you two! What were you girls _thinking?!_ " Katara ranted, pacing back and forth across the living room as she viciously scolded Suki and Toph. If she'd been dragging her feet a little bit more, she probably would have worn a rut into the floor by now. "Honestly! I am at a _loss!_ "

Suki, for her part, did look genuinely contrite as she stood stock still next to Toph. Her head was bowed penitently, and arms were hanging stiffly at her sides as Katara chewed them out. Toph, on the other hand, just looked bored, lazily cleaning her ears. The earthbender was so used to Katara's lectures that most of what the Water Tribe girl said just rolled right off her.

And Sokka, standing behind the Toph and Suki, looked unsure of what to do – usually he was the one getting getting scolded right alongside Toph, but this time he hadn't actually done anything wrong. But he wouldn't have felt right leaving the two to their fate, so he stood there with them, paralyzed by equal parts fear and indecision.

The three of them hadn't gotten more than five steps into the house before they had been confronted by the seething waterbender, and boy did Katara let them have it. She used just about every line in the book as she chewed out the two other girls, from " _You should KNOW better!_ " to " _What if you had gotten hurt?_ " and even the time-honored classic: " _Just w_ _ait until your PARENTS hear about this!_ "

And this last one was what truly put the fear of Yue in the pair of miscreants.

" _You wouldn't dare!_ " Toph shrieked, at the same time Suki wailed " _No! Anything but that!_ " Even Sokka joined in with a yelped, " _Oh, crap! Dad's gonna kill me!_ " in spite of the fact that, for once, he hadn't actually done anything wrong – he'd spent most all of the previous evening going through various sword kata in his little practice area off to the side of the house.

"Well, what else can I do?!" Katara retorted, sounded as much exasperated as angry. "It's obvious you two won't listen to me! Maybe that's the only thing I can do to get it through your thick skulls! People look up to us, you know! I can't just have the two of running around all willy-nilly like a couple of _animals!_ "

And Toph got pissed at this, and she started yelling right back at Katara while Suki desperately apologized and swore she wouldn't do it again at the same time that Sokka strove in vain to break up the escalating fight before it got too out of hand. And just when it looked like things were about to come to blows between Toph and Katara, they heard a knock at the door.

Everyone suddenly stopped what they were doing. It was like a bubble had been popped, and all of the mounting tension and emotion just... _vanished_. Toph fell out of her horse stance, Katara let her arms drop to her sides, Suki stopped shouting apologies, and Sokka removed his hand from the sling where his boomerang rested (not Boomerang, but a replacement made for him by his father).

All at once the four felt quite abashed, their argument somehow suddenly seeming very silly and inconsequential. Scratching the back of his neck, a sheepish Sokka was the one chosen to go answer the door, while the other three stared awkwardly at one another.

Opening the door, Sokka was greeted with the slightly wrinkled face of their neighbor, Pong. The man had an exasperated look on his face – though his expression brightened just the tiniest bit when he saw that it was Sokka answering the door – as he held a certain, familiar flying lemur up by the scruff of its neck.

"Hello, Mr. Sokka," said Pong, looking a tad twitchier than usual. "Is this yours?"

He pointed, with a slightly irritable expression on his face, to the lemur he was holding, a lemur with a visibly distended gut and a suspiciously contented look in its round, green eyes. It then let out a lazy, gurgled pip when it noticed Sokka's presence.

Sokka pinched the bridge of his nose with a sigh.

"Yup, that's Momo," he muttered. "Let me guess – he got into your groceries again?"

Pong nodded darkly, a scowl on his face. Momo looked entirely unconcerned with the man's displeasure, however, even letting out a tiny, satisfied burp as it hung from his hand.

Sokka glowered at the lemur, though there was no real heat in his expression, and he grabbed Momo from Pong's hand.

"Bad flying lemur," he said in a scolding tone. "Bad. _Bad_ Momo. We do _not_ eat the produce of the nice man who looks like he's just one bad day away from a nervous breakdown, no matter _how_ sweet and appetizing and succulent and..." he trailed off as a growling noise emanated from a stomach, a small trail of drool making its way down his chin. "...and how about I make us some breakfast?" he said to the lemur.

Pong brightened up at this. "Oh, yes!" he said gladly. "That would be most deligh—"

The door shut in his face.


	10. The Unexpected Tales of Ba Sing Se

It is a curious fact about storytelling and human nature that, while accounts of danger and drama and other such things that are never pleasant to experience firsthand may stretch out long in the telling, the storyteller laboring long and hard over every minute detail, accounts of plenty and peace and amiable contentment will almost invariably be only mentioned in passing, glossed over with a paragraph or two of description, and no more. Perhaps it is not something that is of the greatest credit to human nature, but people simply do not _enjoy_ stories where everything is simple and peaceful.

Stories require conflict to be compelling, it is said. Whether it be external or internal, grandiose or petty, conflict is the key to an interesting tale. A chapter of nothing but descriptions of food and beds and calm, peaceful times is scarcely more than fluff if not done well. And even then, many find such inane, banal details to be detestable and boring to uttermost degree.

Thus, I, in my role as the weaver and teller of this particular tale, shall do my best not to bore you overmuch by lingering on matters of little import in the grand scheme of things (or even the lesser scheme).

The next few days, things were peaceful for the Gaang.

After Aang got back from his meeting with King Kuei to see Suki doing Katara's hair with Momo sleeping in her lap while Sokka read some sort of adventure story to Toph, he had been relieved that no one was trying to kill anyone.

The rest of that day passed peacefully. He and the others gave Suki a proper tour of the house, and just hung out together for a few hours doing nothing of note or import. They ate lunch at some restaurant in the Middle Ring (the name of the establishment escaped them) before splitting up into separate groups to do their own thing.

Toph went to pay a visit to Iroh, while Sokka took Suki on a stroll in one of the nicer Upper Ring parks, and Aang and Katara took Appa out for a ride to give the Sky Bison some time to really stretch its legs. They all had a good time, and they returned to the house at varying times, all in good spirits.

The day after proceeded in a similarly pleasant, but ultimately uninteresting fashion, as well as the day after that. During this span of time, only a few things of interest happened to occur.

* * *

Sokka grinned as he unveiled his latest, proudest work to his girlfriend. He yanked the concealing cloth off from over the the canvas, revealing a painting.

Suki eyed it in interest.

The composition was, to put it bluntly, most amateur. The colors blended, but not entirely, and the perspective was a bit off-kilter. The lighting and shading were somewhat inconsistent, and the weak use of negative space leaved much to be desired. The anatomy was far precise, and quite frankly the painting did absolutely no justice to its subject matter.

And yet...

And yet Suki could not help but picture her boyfriend laboring over every line, every drop of paint. She could envision him focusing, his tongue peeking out the side of his mouth in that cute way of his as he concentrated intently on the composition and creation of his work. She could see in every slight splotch and imperfection all of the blood, sweat, and tears he put into this piece.

The painting was on all points _mediocre_ at best, and yet Suki could not help the feeling of pride that blossomed in her chest as she looked at it. The portrait was not good by any stretch of the imagination, and yet when she looked at it all she could think of was how much _effort_ her boyfriend must have put into his art to improve this much from the last time she saw him.

He still was a far cry from being called an artist by anyone who wasn't a fat, rich, collector, but to Suki that didn't matter. As far as she was concerned, even for all its flaws, and all its mediocrity, this portrait might as well have been a masterpiece of the highest order for how much emotion it managed to evoke in her.

"So?" Sokka asked her earnestly, such a genuine, innocent, eager expression on his face that Suki's heart melted that much more. "What do you think?"

Suki smiled at him.

"I love it," she said, with all the sincerity of a parent who takes one look at their child's crude, crayon scribbles and proclaims it a masterpiece, proudly pinning it to the door of their fridge with a refrigerator magnet.

Sokka beamed, and he looked every bit as pleased as he could ever possibly be.

"Really?!"

Suki's smile widened as she planted a soft peck on his cheek.

"Really," she said, her eyes glimmering like lipid pools as she looked into his deep blue lamps. "I'd be proud to hang it in my living room."

Sokka chuckled. "Would definitely be one heck of a conversation starter," he agreed with a nod. But then his smile faltered slightly. "Do you really think that would be appropriate, though?"

"Of course it would," insisted Suki. "It's an artful nude, nothing inappropriate."

Sokka grinned broadly.

"I still don't think I did the original any justice," he said, growling suggestively and waggling his eyebrows at his girlfriend.

Suki rolled her eyes, though she was also giggling a bit.

"I dunno. I think it looks just like me," she said. It was only a half-lie – the painting really _was_ a striking likeness of her, even as amateurishly done as it was.

"Well, how about we compare them?" Sokka suggested playfully. "Just to be sure."

"Of course," said Suki. "Just give me half a second."

She then grabbed one of Sokka's (clean) socks, which she proceeded to hang outside the teen's door, to let everyone know they were "busy".

* * *

"Hey, Sugar Queen," said Toph, greeting Katara as she walked across the zen garden to where the Water Tribe girl was meditating beside a small koi pond. "I just thought of something."

Katara cracked an eyelid open, curiously quirking an eyebrow at the younger girl. She did not leave her lotus position, though.

"What?" she asked.

"You remember how you and Sokka and Aang were telling the story of Princess Yue to that crowd at the Jasmine Dragon?"

Katara frowned thoughtfully. She _did_ recall the three of them sharing stories of their past adventures at Iroh's tea shop, though she had difficulty recalling any specific examples right off the top of her head.

"Yeah," she said. "I think so. Why?"

Toph grinned, and set herself down on the ground beside Katara.

"Well, Yue was a princess, right? Even though she was Water Tribe?"

"Well, _yes_ ," said Katara, resisting the urge to roll her eyes, even though Toph wouldn't realistically have been able to see the gesture. "One would assume as much from the fact that she was called _Princess_ Yue. And," she added, her nose wrinkling slightly, "being Water Tribe is _not_ exclusive with being royalty." _  
_

"Okay, okay," said Toph, "No need to get snippy – I just wanted to make sure. Well, anyways, Yue was a princess because she was the daughter of the Norther Water Tribe's chief, right?"

"Correct," said Katara, uncertain what the girl's point was.

"And you and Snoozles are the kids of the _Southern_ Water Tribe's chief, right?"

"...Right," said Katara, still not completely sure where Toph was going with this.

Toph smirked, looking as though she knew something no one else did. "Then wouldn't that make the two of you a princess and a prince?"

Katara nearly choked, recalling something Sokka had said to Yue back what seemed so long ago.

"N-not really..." she said, after getting her breathing back under control. "The Northern Tribe has been around a lot longer than the Southern one. And also..."

Katara paused, feeling just a little uncomfortable.

"...well, while I know that neither I or Sokka like being called peasants or savages, in all honesty... Compared to the Northern Tribe, the South Pole lost a _lot_ during the war. Our entire people were reduced to single, tiny village. We had no waterbenders, no scholars, no art or literature or anything. Our culture was all but _eradicated_ by the Fire Nation," she explained grimly. "Even if you WERE to call me and Sokka royalty, what would be royalty _of?_ " she asked. "This iceberg? That snowdrift? Those elderly tribesmen? These little children?" _  
_

Katara shook her head.

"Even if you were to call me a princess," she continued, "it still wouldn't _mean_ anything. I would just be princess of a few snow huts. Sokka would just be prince of fifty people, at most."

It was quiet for a moment, and Katara sighed. Now, after saying all of that, she was simply too worked up and distressed to focus on her meditation. She flopped down on her back, stretching out her legs and letting her feet dangle in the koi pond.

Then Toph said something that caught her off guard.

"Are you sure?"

Katara blinked.

"Huh?" she said intelligently.

" _Are you sure?_ " Toph repeated. "You say you and Snoozles aren't really royalty because your culture was wiped out, but I don't believe you. If it was really wiped out, truly, _completely destroyed_ , then why do you exist? If the Southern Water Tribe has really lost its culture, then why do you call yourself Southern Water Tribe?"

The blind girl scoffed.

"Just because you grew up in a little village with no real books, no fancy pants art galleries and junk, can you really say your culture was destroyed? No, I don't believe that," she said firmly. "You still exist. And so does Sokka, and your dad, and your Gran-Gran, and all those other warriors and tribesmen. I don't no about art or literature, but isn't it the _people_ that define a culture, anyways?" she asked. "You're still alive. You still have an identity as _Water Tribe_. That's enough of a culture for me.

"And the way I see it," she continued, "you and Snoozles are already as good as royalty – and I'm not talking about who you're dad is, either. You're friends with some of the most powerful and important people in the world: the Fire Lord, the Earth King, _me_..." she trailed off, a smug look on her face. "Frankly, if there's anything I've learned growing up as a Bei Fong, it's that status is all about _who_ _you know_. And you and Sokka know all the right people. Besides, the Southern Water Tribe is rebuilding now, isn't it? It won't just be some little village, any more. It'll grow again, and recover and advance, thanks to you and Snoozles. The way I see it, if you two started calling yourselves a prince and princess, nobody will question it." _  
_

Katara blinked, mouth agape. She was silent for a moment, before finally speaking.

"I... never thought about it like that," the waterbender admitted, looking sheepish. Then she shook her head. "Still, though... I don't know if I would really be... _comfortable_... with the idea. I've never thought of us as royalty, so it would seem weird to start doing so now."

"Eh," said Toph with a shrug. "Everyone's gotta start somewhere."

* * *

Aang sighed contentedly as he took a sip of tea. He was seated at a table in the Jasmine Dragon, a teacup in hand and a plate with a red bean bun before him.

It was a slow time of day in the tea shop – there were only a few customers present here and there, and most of them were regulars who were completely unfazed by the presence of the Avatar at this establishment. Above the door hung a sign with the phrase _"Better three days without food, than one without tea,"_ written on it in Iroh's casually flowing calligraphy.

Iroh, dressed in a modest Earth Kingdom fashion, grinned at the look on the boy's face.

"How do you like my new blend, Aang?" he inquired conversationally.

"It's kind of sweet," Aang replied, a thoughtful look on his face. "But also... tangy? Sour?" He hummed. "It's an interesting combination, I can say that."

"Yes, it is," said Iroh. "Not the most popular of my new blends, but it certainly has its fans."

"I can see why," Aang said, taking another sip. "It's very refreshing."

"So I am told," Iroh replied, "Though I am myself partial to more traditional brews, this lemon tea is certainly enjoyable on its own merits. It is particularly beloved by students at the University of Ba Sing Se."

"And I think I can see why," said Aang, draining his cup appreciatively. "It _is_ good."

"I am glad to hear that," said Iroh. "And I imagine it will do you some good. Even the Avatar needs to relax, after all."

Aang smiled softly, but he was sighing. "Yeah," he said quietly. "It's not an easy job."

"No job worth doing ever is," said Iroh sagely.

"You think so?"

"I _know_ so," he replied.

Aang's smile widened, and he laughed. "Yeah, I think you're probably right," he agreed.

Iroh chortled along with him.


	11. Pretty Much a Zuko Chapter

In the lore of the Fire Nation, it is said that the first Agni Kai was held when two Fire Sages were crossing a narrow bridge – one from the west, and one from the east. The two sages met at the middle of the bridge, and neither one could pass the other. Both had urgent business to which they needed to attend, and neither was willing to yield to the other.

To do so would have been dishonorable.

For either one to kneel down or stand aside to let the other pass would have been tantamount to submission, and these were both renowned sages of equally high standing. They were proud, respected, powerful. Neither one would yield or stand aside. Neither one would submit to the other.

So upon that bridge, they dueled. Each commanded the living spark and fire, each was a master of the dragons' arts.

The flash of dancing flames upon the bridge and in the sky could be seen far and wide as the two sages fought for the sake of their pride, their honor. Those who beheld the sight proclaimed that, surely, they must be witnessing a meeting of great and powerful fire gods.

From this, the ritual of an honorable duel between firebenders got its name: _Agni Kai_ – "When gods of fire meet." And ever since then, when two firebenders had a quarrel with one another, it was tradition to settle the dispute with a ritual duel of the firebending arts, with an Agni Kai.

This was what went through the mind of Fire Lord Zuko as he cast aside his robes, baring his leanly muscled arms and torso. He stepped forward onto the raised platform, feeling the eyes of the nobility and his advisers bearing down upon him.

But he was not afraid of them. Not any more.

Zuko narrow his unscarred eye at the man standing before him. He was a stocky, aging member of the nobility. His pepper black hair was flecked with motes of gray and streaks of silver, and his face was deeply lined with the passage of years, but Zuko did not let this deceive him into thinking the man was weak.

No, the man's thick, muscular arms and steadily rooted stance belied that he was anything but. Even a cushioning layer of fat could not wholly conceal the powerful, sculpted muscles which tensed and coiled just beneath the surface. The retired Admiral Jakka was anything but weak. He was a master firebender, a fighter of considerable ability.

And Zuko knew this. Because if nothing else, he could at least be certain that his father would never have tolerated a weakling to command so many of the Fire Nation's battleships.

"Before we begin, I will give you once last chance to honorably recant," said the young Fire Lord. "If you kneel down now and admit your wrongdoing, I shall be lenient."

The stony expression on the former admiral's face was unchanging. Scoffing, the man retorted.

"What honor is there to be had in submitting to a mere boy?" the man demanded quietly, stoically. "What wrong have I done, that I should beg the forgiveness of a usurper?"

Zuko's expression was cold, unreadable.

"You are stubborn," he said. "Too stubborn to see the reality of the matter. I know you have plotted against me, _former_ Admiral Jakka," he stated firmly. "You make light of my authority, defy my will, call me a usurper."

Golden eyes flashed, and gouts of flame shot up on all sides of the platform, great walls of fire that ringed the two duelists in.

"But whether you like it or not, _I_ am the Fire Lord," Zuko continued firmly. "My father was beaten, laid low by the Avatar and stripped of his bending, his Inner Flame. My sister is insane – in the brief time before she would have been crowned Fire Lord, she lost herself to paranoia. She went mad with power, and she banished everyone but the Fire Sages."

The young man, standing tall, shifted into a firebending stance.

"Tell me," he said lowly. "Do you really think so little of me that you would prefer one of _them_ on the throne?"

"At least they were not weak," Jakka replied, his voice hard as he too took a firebending stance.

"Then there truly is only one way to settle this," said Zuko, before throwing a punch and sending a large fireball straight for his opponent.

Jakka crossed his arms in front of his body, and then he brought them apart. The fireball split down the middle, its flames flowing harmlessly around either side of the aging firebender. He then cocked both arms back, punching them forward as one. Jets of red and yellow and orange blew forth from his fists, merging together in a mighty inferno that engulfed the young Fire Lord.

But then the fire seemed to collapse in upon itself, shrinking and scattering and coalescing as a firestorm raging round the untouched form of the Fire Lord. Tongues of flame swirled around Zuko as he slowly, gracefully rotated his arms in a motion that seemed more appropriate for a waterbender than a firebender, the fiery glow concentrating in the palms of his hands as he drew in the fire from Jakka's attack.

He then brought his hands together with a sound like a thunderclap, and the flames were sent back at Jakka with tenfold intensity. The man had to work quickly to keep from being overwhelmed by this attack, performing complex movements in an effort to still and disperse the wild inferno.

But it was too much for him to control all at once, and he was overwhelmed. The flames engulfed Jakka as he fell to his knees, yet they did not burn him.

He knew why this was, recalling with a bitter taste in his mouth the words of his childhood firebending instructor.

_"A master of fire controls his element with absolute focus. Firebending is, in its purest form, an exercise in discipline, restraint. Any fool can set fire to everything around him, but the flames of a master shall burn only that which he wills them to – no more, and no less."_

And Jakka was disgusted with himself. Not for his actions in plotting against the new Fire Lord, not for his crimes and his lies. No, he was disgusted with himself for receiving mercy from a mere boy – for _needing_ that mercy in the first place.

But at the same time, he felt a hint of respect towards the young man who had bested him. Zuko was strong, strong enough that he could _afford_ to show mercy. For mercy was a luxury of the strong.

 _Zuko_ was strong.

Jakka could respect that.

* * *

A few hours later, Zuko was headed back to his throne room after the meeting had finally concluded. He was walking up to the head of the many-pillared hall where the great, carven doors of Fire Lord Kazan opened up into the Fire Lord's ruling chamber. He was just about to push them open when he was stopped by the sound of a familiar voice.

"You put on quite the show," someone behind him said in an almost lethargic tone of voice. Zuko felt a hand slip into one of his palms – smaller than his own, but with noticeable callouses and a deceptively strong grip – and he smiled.

"Hi, Mai," he said quietly, warmly, turning his head to face his girlfriend. He squeezed her hand in his. "I didn't see you in the crowd."

For a second, Zuko could have sworn that he saw the ghost of a smirk curve the pale young woman's beautiful, soft lips – but it was gone in an instant, if it were even truly there to begin with.

"My seat was behind you," the weapons mistress answered, dark eyes peering into Zuko's own gold ones. "I had a _very_ nice view," she remarked, and this time Zuko saw the smirk quite clearly.

He reciprocated with a smile, a glint of amusement in his eyes. He tugged on her hand, pulling her forward to where he could wrap an arm around her waist. Mai did not protest.

"I'm glad to hear that," he told her, before pushing the doors to the throne room open. "Maybe later we can..."

Whatever he was about to suggest, Mai never heard it, because in that instant the two of them were accosted by a harried-looking messenger.

"Lord Zuko, sir!" the man exclaimed. "I have news from the salvage and recovery efforts in Wulong Forest and the surrounding areas."

This caught Zuko's attention. One of his earliest acts as Fire Lord, aside from ordering the immediate cessation of all hostile military activity in foreign territories, had been to call for a salvage of the wreckage of the Fire Nation's imperial air fleet – he'd had more than one reason for this. Aside from the rescue of survivors from the crash sites (and there had been dismally few – his father's final jab, a more irrational part of Zuko supposed), there had also been a desire to salvage parts and raw materials from the ships.

He'd also had a more private reason, as well, and he had given instructions for the men to keep an eye peeled for a few specific items. He wasn't sure why he had, unless perhaps out of a certain sense of... _obligation_ , almost, or else maybe just because of simple camaraderie.

"Anything I should know about?" Zuko inquired coolly, doing his best not to let any sort of anticipation show on his face.

The man gave the Fire Lord a look, clearly understanding what Zuko was talking about.

"Well, aside from a handful of reports from survivors and cost estimates for any further salvage operations in Earth Kingdom territory..." the man answered in a clear, business-like tone. He no longer looked quite so tired or exasperated, now that he was back in his comfort zone. "One object of interest was found in the possession of an engineer who was located... _recuperating_... in Yu Dao."

The distaste in the bureaucrat's voice gave Zuko a fairly good idea of how exactly this engineer had been ' _recuperating_ '. Well, the Fire Lord wasn't about to judge. The nation's fighting men and women deserved a break after everything that had happened, and anyways it wasn't as though they especially _needed_ to stay in fighting shape anymore. Not now that the war was over.

"What's this _'object of interest'_?" Mai interjected, almost sounding curious as glanced from the messenger to her boyfriend.

"Nothing important," Zuko answered, looking a little sheepish under the scrutiny of his girlfriend's sharp glance. "It's just... something of sentimental value, I suppose you could say."

Mai quirked an eyebrow at this.

The messenger, as though prompted, simply produced a long, thin object – it was about equal in length to one of Zuko's arms, and very slim and slender. It was a sword, clearly, though Mai noted that the sheath seemed to be of noticeably lower quality than the visible hilt and pommel.

"Wow," Mai drawled as she scanned the item in the messenger's hand. "This is that _'object of interest'_? That must be some sentiment," she dryly observed, before stepping forward and grabbing the weapon by the sheath. She analysed the hilt, eyeing the lotus pattern on the pommel and the fine craftsmanship. "This is a Piandao original. Another gift from your old master?"

Zuko scratched the back of his neck. "Well, it's not mine, actually..."

But then Mai curiously unsheathed the weapon, and her eyes widened when she saw that the blade was black as jet, the color of gleaming obsidian. It was straight and narrow, double-edged – the gentlemen of weapons, a stately jian all in black. Her eyes kindled with the spark of akin to awe as she beheld the weapon in her hand.

"It's _beautiful..._ " she breathed, reverently running slender, pale fingers down the flat of the blade in what could only be described as a loving caress. "No wonder you sent a search and rescue party after it," she remarked thoughtfully, after a moment of just observing the way the light played across the blade. After another moment, she added, "If I had something like this, I'd never let it out of my sight."

Zuko bade the messenger farewell, and he stepped into the throne room with Mai at his side, still inspecting the sword and testing its balance. There was silence as he went up and took a seat upon the raised dais where was set his throne. He sat down, cross-legged, and Mai sat down next to him.

At length, the brunette laid the weapon back down, re-sheathing it.

"Whose is it?" she asked.

At first, for just a second, Zuko was uncertain what she was talking about, a little distracted the pleasant weight of Mai gently leaning her slender form against his. But then his brain caught back up, and he replied:

"Oh, it's Sokka's."

Mai quirked an eyebrow at this.

"You mean the Water Tribe boy Ty Lee kept flirting with?"

Zuko made a face. "Yes, him."

Mai made a thoughtful humming noise in the back of her throat.

"Well, well... I think I'm starting to understand what she saw in him," she remarked half-jokingly, glancing back at the sword lying by her side. Zuko spluttered at this, and Mai simply rolled her eyes before saying, "I suppose you're planning on returning this to him?"

Zuko nodded.

"Yeah," he answered. "He lost it stopping the airships from burning down the Earth Kingdom, had to throw it away to save his life. That's a heavy loss for a swordsman."

Half against his will, gold eyes flicked to a pair of matching, crossed dao hanging just above his head behind him.

Mai's eyes followed his, and she nodded in understanding.

"He's a lucky guy, to have a friend like you," she observed, casually nuzzling her cheek into the crook of Zuko's neck.

The Fire Lord smiled.

"Then that makes two of us."

* * *

Even as the Fire Lord and his girlfriend spoke, back in Ba Sing Se a certain young swordsmen was in the midst of an intense training session. It was a vigorous workout, intended to push both mind and body to their limits.

"No, no, no," said Piandao, shaking his head as he once more interrupted his student. "It's step, step, pivot, step –not step, pivot, step, step. You must start over, once more from the top," he instructed firmly, but softly.

Sokka winced, before sighing.

"Again?" he asked, holding his position frozen in mid-step. "We've gone through this twelve times already!"

"And we will go through it twelves time more," Piandao replied, "and twelve times again, until you finally get it right. If you truly wish to master the art of the sword, then you must not be willing to settle for anything less than complete perfection."

"I get _that_ ," Sokka replied, nervously tugging at the collar of the stuffy Earth Kingdom dress clothes Katara had bought for him, trying to loosen it up as small drops of sweat slowly beaded down his face, "but what does dancing have to do with sword fighting?"

Off to the side, Toph, Suki, and the others giggled and snickered. Sokka shot them a black look – _the traitors_ – before turning his attention back to Sifu Piandao.

"Swordsmanship," Piandao responded calmly, unfazed by his apprentice's remarks or behavior, "is an ancient and noble art, and thus one who practices it must learn to comport himself in a manner befitting a noble. Moreover, with the harvest festival drawing near, it is my duty as your mentor to teach you how to behave yourself as a proper gentleman."

He then smiled at Sokka, the expression warm and proud.

"Your father entrusted me with the duty of completing your training, and I intend to uphold his trust. You and your friends will be guests of honor in the Earth King's court – you will be under the direct scrutiny of some of the most powerful and important people in the Four Nations. As such, it is imperative that I impress upon you as much of the art gentlemanly conduct as I can."

Almost as an afterthought, he added: "Besides, as I have said before the feet are the foundation of any fighting style, armed or otherwise. By learning to dance, you will better improve your ability to coordinate your footwork, and as a result your swordwork will become more fluid and precise. I guarantee it."

This caused Sokka to perk up, and he beamed.

"Well, why didn't you just say so?" he said. "C'mon, I still haven't got this Ostrich-horse Waltz down yet!"

Piandao laughed as he started correcting Sokka's form, and the others echoed his chuckles from the sidelines.


	12. Letters and Notes

Sokka had a number of penpals.

Like the rest of Team Avatar, as he still mentally called their little group of friends, he had met many people over the course of his journeys. He had made several friends in far flung corners of the world, and he did his best to keep in touch. Of course, in a time and place before radio waves or mass communication, the only real way to do so was by writing letters.

So he wrote a LOT of letters.

Sokka's contacts ranged from people his own age, like Zuko and Suki, to family, like Gran-Gran and Dad, to various others, such as Sifu Piandao or the Mechanist. It seemed like almost every other day he was receiving a new letter from one of his contacts, and he almost always sent a new letter out in response within a day or two.

Now, out of the members of Team Avatar, Sokka probably had the third or second most penpals. Katara had the absolute most, hands down, being the social butterfly that she was. It seemed like she was getting five new letters every day, and she still managed to send out replies as promptly as anything, without fail. The others couldn't even begin to imagine how she was able to do so, but Katara had a gift, in that regard.

Aang, for his part, wrote letters only sporadically – the young Air Nomad was more inclined to hop on Appa and fly over to a friend's place if he felt like talking to them, and he wasn't the most comfortable with writing letters. Even with how much he had matured since Sokka and Katara had found him in that iceberg, Aang was still very tactile and energetic and, well, _childish_ , to an extent. He was just much more comfortable with face to face conversation, and hadn't really mastered the art of conveying thoughts and emotions through the written word.

Toph, of course, had no real penpals: her blindness made reading and writing _difficult_ , to say the absolute least. So when she wanted to send someone a letter – and this happened only rarely – she would just dictate the general contents to Sokka and Katara, who would send it out for her. Usually, though, she would just piggyback comments into the others' letters if she felt the need to say anything at all.

Regardless, however, the point is that Sokka had a _lot_ of penpals. And he got a _lot_ of letters _from_ said penpals.

He heard some mighty curious things in these letters, too. There were a number of references to rumors about himself, for instance, and tall tales of his exploits during the war, but most of the time Sokka couldn't make heads or tails of what his penpals were saying. It made him wonder, from time to time, but for the most part Sokka just attributed it to "hero worship or whatever" and shrugged it off. Most of his correspondents seemed to assume that he already knew about the rumors, so they didn't really go into much detail about them.

Sokka figured it probably wasn't anything too important, whatever the case.

 _However_ , getting back to the main point of all this, one of Sokka's many penpals was his father, Hakoda. And the two of them exchanged _many_ letters, keeping one another up to date on the various happenings here and there in their respective corners of the world. This included news of occurrences both political and... more _domestic._

* * *

"DAD'S COMING UP HERE FOR THE HARVEST FESTIVAL!" Sokka exclaimed to the rest of the living room, looking up from the letter he had just been perusing. He had a look of barely contained excitement on his face, a wide grin spreading from ear to ear as he looked around eagerly at the others in the room.

This news garnered mixed reactions from the others.

Aang, who had been bobbing a piece of string up and down for Momo to bat at, looked immediately to his girlfriend, perhaps wondering what her response would be. Katara, for her part, simply smiled at her brother, seeing how gleeful he looked.

Suki, on the other hand, looked a little anxious. She was smiling, but it appeared just a tiny bit forced. Perhaps she was nervous about meeting her boyfriend's dad – she hadn't really had a chance to meet the man during the post-war celebrations, and she'd left for Kyoshi Island almost immediately after that. Maybe part of her felt a little guilty over that, and wondered whether Hakoda would approve of her.

Toph, in contrast, looked completely unperturbed. "So?" she said. "Your dad's coming over. Big deal."

She spun a finger in the air next to her head.

"Well, it _is_ , isn't it?" Aang replied. "It's a long way from the South Pole to Ba Sing Se."

"A long, _long_ way," Katara agreed.

" _But the girls in the city,_ " Suki chimed in with a scarcely suppressed giggle.

" _Are ohhh sooo prettyyyyy!_ " Toph continued in a theatrical singsong, before breaking down in hysterical laughter.

Sokka scowled, though on closer inspection it was evident that he was fighting the urge to snicker, his lips twitching minutely and his eyes flicking between the two girls with a glint of amusement.

Katara rolled her eyes, though.

"Oh, you _know_ what I mean," she grumbled irritably. "It isn't like Dad can just hop on a flying bison and come up here. It can take _weeks_ to sail all the way up here from the South Pole. It's not a journey you would undertake on whim."

She then got a thoughtful expression on her face, and glanced over in her brother's direction.

"Say, Sokka, _did_ he say why he was coming up?"

The teen shrugged. "Just that he had some good news," he answered. "Something he wants to say in person, I guess."

Aang looked interested at this. "Huh. I wonder what it could be?"

"I'unno," Sokka grunted in response. "Maybe he's seeing someone and wants to introduce us to her?" he suggested.

Katara made a face at this.

Toph let out a low whistle.

" _Wow_ , Sugar Queen," she remarked. "Are you having a heart attack or something? You must be _really_ freaked out at the idea of getting a new mom," she said teasingly.

"No!" Katara retorted, a little too quickly. Her ears were red. "Why would you say that?!"

"I think it would be sweet," Suki supplied. "Your father must feel so lonely, with his children all the way off in Ba Sing Se, and no more war to occupy his time. It would be only natural for him to begin yearning once more for a woman's love."

"Or a man's," Toph suggested nonchalantly. "I mean, him and Bato _are_ pretty close, aren't they?"

This caused Sokka and Katara to nearly choke, their faces turning bright red. _That_ was not a pleasant mental image for either one of them.

* * *

A couple of days later, while Aang and Katara were out doing whatever they did when they went on dates, a letter came in for Toph.

Now even by itself, this occurrence would have been unusual and worthy of note, because Toph _never_ got mail – for obvious reasons. But what particularly caught the attention of those present was _how_ the letter had come.

"HAWKY!" Sokka exclaimed gleefully, jumping up to his feet at the sight of the sleek crimson plumage of his Fire Nation messenger hawk.

"What?" said Toph, her head turning as she sat up from picking her toes. "Seriously? That bird of yours is actually _back?_ "

She sounded both astonished and anxious – why the latter was, neither of the other two could guess.

Suki, for her part, only looked lost for a moment before her eyes widened as she remembered the bird from the stories she had heard from her boyfriend. She remembered the messenger hawk he'd told her he had purchased with his share of the proceeds from Toph's spree of scams in that one Fire Nation town, back before the Day of Black Sun.

She also remembered him telling her how the hawk had vanished without a trace, shortly after he had bought it.

"Wow, I can't believe it actually managed to find you all the way in the Earth Kingdom," said Suki, impressed with the clever raptor.

The bird preened under the attention it was getting, looking as self-satisfied as physically possible with its avian features. It was roosted on the sill of the open window, head held high as its lethal talons gripped the fine plaster windowsill constructed in the fashion favored by many of the Upper Ring's wealthier residents.

That was when Sokka noticed something sticking out of the scroll case on Hawky's back.

"Huh? Do you have a letter for me, Hawky?" he asked the bird, as though expecting it to answer.

Hawky simply stared at him, as if to say _Are you some kind of moron_ _?_

If Sokka understood this, he did not react. Instead, he simply held out his arm, allowing Hawky to alight upon it. The Water Tribe teen bit back a yelp at the feeling of his pet's razor sharp talons pinching holes into his skin, and he opened up the bird-sized backpack to see two scrolls sticking out.

Curious, he pulled them out and checked to see to whom they were addressed – more out of habit than anything else, consider that Hawky _was_ his bird. The first had Toph listed as the recipient – something Sokka found strange – and Grand Duke Lao Bei Fong as the sender – something that made him suspicious, considering what had happened the last time there had been a letter supposedly sent to Toph by her parents. The second, however was addressed to him.

At least, he _assumed_ it was. He didn't remember ever being called _Prince Sokka the Brave of the White Wolf Dynasty_ , though. Even if he _had_ told Yue that he was _kind of a prince, himself_.

Sokka's cheeks flushed faintly at the memory of that, and the memory of the verbal burn he had subsequently received courtesy of his sister.

"Well?" came Toph's voice. " _Does_ Hawky there have a letter for you, Snoozles?"

Sokka blinked, shaken out of his reverie by this.

"Uh, yeah," he said. "One for you, too. From your parents – both of them are, actually. Odd, that."

Toph's ears turned bright pink at this, though Sokka didn't notice. "Yeah... odd."

Suki gave the young earthbender a curious look, uncaring of whether or not she could see it (and she _could_ , as it were). She highly suspected that Toph knew more than she was letting on, but she decided not to press the issue, instead turning her attention back to her boyfriend.

"What do they say?" she asked him.

"Let's find out," Sokka replied cheerfully, unrolling the scroll addressed to himself first. Quickly, his eyes skimmed the message, looking for anything of interest. "Huh," he murmured, spotting a curious passage. "I don't really get what they're talking about, but apparently your parents think very well of me, Toph."

The blind chit quirked a thin black eyebrow at this.

"Seriously?" she asked.

"Seriously," Sokka said with a nod. "They even addressed me as _Prince_ Sokka, and everything."

Suki stifled a giggle at this, but Toph looked more or less unsurprised.

"Well, you kind of _are_ one" the Blind Bandit stated matter of factly. "It only makes sense they'd want to kiss up to the future Chief of the Southern Water Tribe, right? Especially now that it's being rebuilt and all."

Sokka blinked, taken aback by this, and Suki's jaw dropped slightly as she took in what Toph had just said. The former _had_ known for a good while that he was basically the next in line for position of chief – because even the rank was technically granted on personal merit, the tribe generally favored the family of the previous chief when it came to choosing the next one. And the Southern Water Tribe _was_ rebuilding, so it wasn't as though they would be irrelevant forever, right? Eventually they would be a true world power, the way they used to be.

Suki, for her part, was surprised because this was the first time she'd really considered _who_ Sokka was. She had _known_ , of course, that his father _was_ the current chief of the Southern Water Tribe, but whether because of the simple, unsophisticated manner in which he comported himself or something else, she simply hadn't made the conscious connection that _Sokka_ would _of course_ be the next in line. For all intents and purposes, her boyfriend was essentially a _prince_.

Suki wasn't entirely sure sure how she should take this.

"...Was there anything else?" the Kyoshi Warrior asked at length.

"Oh, yeah!" said Sokka, and he glanced back at the high quality parchment in his hands. "They said they're looking forward to meeting me, though that doesn't really make sense. I mean, we already met once, didn't we?"

"Well, they didn't really get to talk to you at the time," Toph responded. "As I recall it, you were too busy stuffing your face to make any small talk."

Sokka at least had the decency to look embarrassed for himself.

"Hey, I was hungry," he weakly protested, still blushing a little.

Suki smiled at the sight. Her boyfriend really _was_ cute when he got like that.

A thought struck her at that moment, however.

"Hey, what about Toph's letter?" she inquired. "I don't imagine she can read it herself." She paused, and turned to look at the younger girl a little sheepishly. "Err... No offense, of course."

"None taken," Toph said blandly. "And no, obviously I _can't_ read it. So, Snoozles? Mind reading it out loud for me?"

Sokka nodded in understanding. "Sure," he said, before unfurling the scroll... and unfurling further. After a few seconds of that, he stared at the rather lengthy letter, not looking particularly excited at the thought of reading it all out.

"Um," he said, "You want the full version, or do you mind if I abridge it a bit?"

"Abridge away, Captain," said Toph without so much as a moment's hesitation. "I can only handle so much of their whining in a single sitting, anyways."

Sighing in relief, Sokka began to recount the gist of what the letter said.

"Well, let's see. They say hi... a lot of pleasantries and... ah, personal hygiene reminders..." he trailed on, a faint mixture of pink and green tingeing his cheeks. "Let's see, what else... what else... Oh!" he exclaimed. "Apparently they're coming up here for the Harvest Festival. Say they have some good news for you. I wonder what it could be?"

Toph groaned.

"I dunno," she muttered, "but knowing _their_ definition of 'good'... I get the feeling that I am not going to like it."

She then sighed, before going silent and letting herself fall back down on her... well, _back_.

"What are the odds, though?" mumbled Suki after a moment's silence. "Both Toph's parents and your and Katara's dad coming up to Ba Sing Se for the Harvest Festival. That's some coincidence..." she said in a manner which suggested that she did not _for one second_ believe it really was just a coincidence.

"Ehhh, not really," Toph replied. "It _is_ a pretty big event, after all. And we're guests of honor, at that. Only natural our parents would decide to come up here." She was then quiet for a moment, before somewhat darkly adding under her breath, " _I'm still suspicious of this so-called 'good news', though..._ "

"Yeah," said Sokka, "I'm sure it's nothing important. They probably just wanna be here with their kids." He looked unconcerned, apparently not having heard Toph's muttering. "Heck, I wouldn't be surprised if we heard from _your_ parents next, Suki," he added with a go-lucky grin.

In spite of her boyfriend's optimism, however, Suki could not help but feel pensive.

She had a feeling that this was _no_ coincidence.

* * *


	13. Literally Metaphorically Drowning

As the Harvest Festival drew nigh, the Gaang threw themselves into preparing for the party. They would be guests of honor in the Earth King's palace, where a ball would be held in celebration of the year's traditional final harvest. It was one of the most important events in the Earth Kingdom, and just about everybody who was anybody would be in attendance.

Farming was an integral part of the Earth Kingdom's culture, after all. Many of the most widespread festivals in the nation pertained in some manner to planting or harvest. Of the Four Nations, the Earth Kingdom had ever been the most agrarian, and this shined through in nearly every aspect of life. For instance, grains – ranging from rice to corn to wheat – formed the foundation of the traditional Earth Kingdom diet, followed shortly by vegetables and fruits.

Meat was also considered an important part, of course, but it was simply much too expensive for the average citizen to eat in more than small amounts. Hunting was not very widespread in the Earth Kingdom, certainly not outside of rural countryside settlements, and livestock took a lot of time and investment to raise and sustain, much moreso than planted crops. In that way, the Earth Kingdom was the opposite of the Water Tribes, where meat was much more readily available than fruits or vegetables, and hunting and fishing were the primary sources of sustenance.

Even if most Earth Kingdom nobility were not themselves farmers, and perhaps even looked down on the peasants who did such work, the mentality of farming communities was still ingrained into the cultural subconsciousness. Even in the court of the Earth King, the mentality of farming communities still showed forth in their manner of legislation and regulation. Those who knew how to look for such things could easily find signs of the influence of communal farms and crop-sharing and self-governing villages in the prevailing political and economic theories of Ba Sing Se's scholars and intellectuals. Even if most of these people had never so much as _touched_ a sickle or a spade in their life, they still _thought_ like farmers, in a way, because their fathers and their fathers' fathers and their fathers' fathers' fathers had all thought like farmers.

Furthermore, and most importantly, the people of the Earth Kingdom valued fertility above almost all else. From the flourishing of crops to the fathering of children, the Earth Kingdom's people prized fertility in all its forms. Spring was the season of earth, and it was the season when farmers began once more to sow their seeds and let them grow. But autumn was the season of harvest, when the farmers reaped the last of what they had sowed and set down the last of their stores against the onset of winter.

The harvest was where the fruits of fertility were made apparent, where those who had been blessed the most bountifully by the heavenly patrons of crops and livestock got their chance to make boast of the returns on their agricultural investments. Primarily via feasting, as well as singing and drinking and dancing and such.

This was as much the case in the Earth Kingdom capital of Ba Sing Se as it was out in the sticks. Indeed, the Harvest Festival was hands down just about the single most auspicious social event in the Earth King's court, and an invitation to the Harvest Ball in the Earth Palace was considered one of the most prestigious honors one could be granted.

Chief Hakoda was contemplating all of these things as he disembarked from his ship, closely followed by his right hand man, Bato. Their vessel was a craft of Water Tribe make, a re-purposed cerulean longboat with its bleached-ivory prow carved into the shape of a leaping arctic wolf, Hakoda's personal device as well as the source of his moniker. The longboats of the Southern Water Tribe were swift and maneuverable vessels, capable of sailing across oceans or up rivers with uncanny ease – even when heavily laden with men and supplies, the ingenuity of their design enabled the ships to float high in the water, and there were few bodies so treacherous or shallow as they could not navigate. And they were easy to handle, or at least so long as one was raised in their use.

But even for these crafts, the journey from the South Pole to Ba Sing Se was an arduous one. It had taken twelve long days of sailing against inclement weather and marauding pirates to get here, to the docks of Full Moon Bay at the foot of the Impenetrable City, and they were weary and hungry and sore. Yet they had made it. It had been rough sailing, but they had finally made it.

Hakoda smiled, seeing his children waiting at the far end of the docks alongside their friends. Sokka was practically jumping for joy at the sight of him, and even Katara was showing signs of restrained excitement.

"Hiii!" came the Avatar's voice as the young lad suddenly leaped several feet into the air before floating down in front of the two Water Tribe men, a broad smile on his smile on his face. When he set back down on the creaky, wooden plank surface of the dock, Aang bowed, once to each of them. "Bato. Chief Hakoda," he said, speaking in a more polite, reserved tone now.

Hakoda could still see the smile tugging at the corners of boy's lips, though.

"Good to see you, kid!" Bato said exuberantly, reaching out with his unscarred arm to grab the mortal incarnation of the Planet's living spirit and give him a noogie. "You still fire ferreting away maps?" he asked goodnaturedly, teasingly.

"No... Not really," said Aang with a sheepish chuckle. "Not anymore."

"No?" said Bato, chortling. "Too bad!" he laughed, letting go of Aang with a final slap on the back.

Hakoda, meanwhile, was currently being polar bear dog-piled by Sokka and Katara.

"Haha!" the chief laughed as his kids wrapped their arms around him, hugging him just about as tightly as they could. "Yes, yes," said he, "I'm happy to see you guys, too!"

"It's so awesome that you came all the way up here, Dad!" Sokka gushed, and Hakoda could feeling his ribs groan in protest as the boy squeezed even tighter.

His son was getting pretty damn strong, the man noted with a hint of pride. _And so was Katara_ , he found himself adding when the girl tightened her embrace as well.

"Thanks, Dad," said the waterbender in question, smiling warmly up at her father. "It really means a lot to us that you're here."

"Yeah," Sokka murmured in agreement, and Hakoda could only grin and hug his children back.

"I wouldn't have missed this for the world," he told them warmly. "I have to be the luckiest father in the world to have two such _amazing_ children. I couldn't possibly be prouder of you guys," he finished, and it was clear that he meant every word of it.

Suki smiled at the heartwarming sight, seeing how happy her boyfriend and his sister looked. Toph standing next to her, appeared less impressed, and had her arms wrapped tightly around herself as she shivered slightly in the cold spray of waves smashing rhythmically against the stony shore of Full Moon Bay.

The former walked down the dock to introduce herself, more or less, while the latter stood her ground where she was on the wooden planks of the dock, wet and miserable and rooted in place.

"Hey," said Suki, walking up to where Aang and Sokka and Katara were with Bato and Hakoda. "I don't believe we've had a chance to meet, yet."

She bowed to Hakoda, curt yet respectful.

"I'm Suki," she said, by way of introduction. "Suki of the Kyoshi Warriors."

Hakoda, looking up from his children, saw the young woman. He greeted her with a nod and a polite smile.

"Hello, Suki," he said pleasantly enough for the purpose of their conversation. "My son's told me a lot about you. He seems pretty smitten, actually!" Hakoda added with a short laugh.

Sokka's ears turned red, and his cheeks quickly followed suit.

" _Daaaaaad!_ " he protested, embarrassed in the way that only a teenager with a parent could be.

Hakoda simply chortled, letting go of his kids to affectionately tousle their hair.

"I know, I know," he said fondly, a warm grin on his face. "I'll try not to embarrass you," he promised noncommittally.

Bato, however, had turned his attention from ribbing Aang to eye Suki thoughtfully, an unidentifiable glint of something in his eyes.

"Hmm..." the man hummed thoughtfully, stroking his beard as he regarded Sokka's girlfriend with a speculative gaze. "So you're a Kyoshi Warrior, right?" he inquired at length. "Is it true, what they say about—?"

Whatever Bato was going to ask, it was cut off quite suddenly by a sudden, loud curse from Toph, followed by splash and another, louder curse as the girl fell off of the dock and into the water, knocked off by some careless traveler who hadn't bothered to watch where they were going.

"AUUUGH! YOU BASTARD!" she cried furiously, beginning splash and thrash in a blind panic as she felt the cold water wash over her. "I'M DROWNING! I'LL KILL YOU! ARGH! I'M DROWNING! YOU DAMN MELON HEAD!"

The water wasn't even chest-high where Toph had fallen in, but you wouldn't have guessed that from the way she was so desperately flailing her arms and violently cursing whatever feckless jackass had knocked her off the dock. For all her toughness and skill as an earthbender, Toph still could not swim, and she was perhaps even a tad bit traumatized from the last time she had fallen into the water of this damnable bay and nearly drowned. At least _this_ time that bloody serpent wasn't around to make things even worse.

"BLARGH! I CAN'T SWIM! HELP ME!"

Of course, if Toph was thinking logically, she would have realized that she could just wade her way back to shore by following the sandy floor of the bed. But going so suddenly from the wooden dock where she couldn't "see" to the water where she couldn't swim had left her severely discomfited and discombobulated.

Some might have even gone so far as to say that she was slightly hysterical, though on solid ground Toph would kick the ass of anyone who dared even _imply_ such about her.

"I'M DROWNING! YOU'RE DROWNING ME! I HAVE BEEN DROWNED!"

Ultimately, however, the fact of the matter was that Toph was not thinking straight, and if she kept up thrashing like that she could very well wind up _making_ herself drown.

So, kicking off his shoes, Sokka hopped into the water next to Toph. It went barely past his waist at that depth, but even if it had been deeper than twice his height he wouldn't have had a problem. Although the waters of the South Pole were far too cold for anything more than the absolute briefest of dips, the people of the Water Tribe still had a certain natural aptitude for swimming that bordered almost on instinct – in much the same way that even nonbending members of the Earth Kingdom or Fire Nation could work the soil or light a fire respectively with a borderline uncanny ease.

But that was irrelevant here, because the water was – _again_ – barely even past Sokka's waist.

Calmly, the teen grabbed hold of one of Toph's madly flailing arms, earning himself a few new lumps in the process.

"MY BADGER-MOLES!" the blind earthbender howled as she struggled unthinkingly against Sokka's grip. "MY BADGER-MOLES! DON'T FORGET ME, MY BADGER-MOLES!"

"Toph," he nearly shouted. "Toph! Calm down. You aren't drowning," he told her. "I've got you."

Toph somehow managed to settle down at this.

"Sokka...?!" she gasped, as she felt the Water Tribe teen begin guiding her to the shore. "You saved me!"

Sokka looked sheepish at this, though Toph couldn't see it.

"Uh, I guess..." he said, using his free hand to scratch the back of his head. "For a given definition of _saved_ , at any rate..."

And then Toph kissed him – nothing steamy, mind, just a soft peck on the cheek, but it was still enough to make Sokka turn a little pink.

"My hero," the Bei Fong heiress declared uncharacteristically primly, uncaring of whether he had really actually _saved_ her from anything besides her own panic.

Sokka coughed nervously, feeling uncomfortably aware of everyone's eyes on him and Toph as he led the girl by hand out of the water – more out of politeness than any actual belief that she really _needed_ his guidance, now that she had calmed down. Sokka was quite abashed on the behalf of Toph, as well as himself. He was certain they must have made quite the pair of fools, walking out of the shallow waters with their clothes sopping wet – especially after that frankly embarrassing spectacle.

Pointedly avoiding the gaze of his friends and family, whom he was certain must have found this quite the sight, Sokka turned to Toph.

"Say, uh, how did you fall in, anyways?" he asked.

"I dunno," she replied after a moment of thought. "I felt someone bump into me, and then I was in the drink. They weren't even watching where they were going!" she muttered with a scowl. "Stupid blind gorilla-goat."

Sokka nodded, silently agreeing with Toph.

Of course, that was when someone chose to interrupt.

"Yes, I am sorry for that," came a vaguely familiar voice, one which Sokka placed as belonging to a middle-aged man – and probably some sort of noble or old money, judging by the crisp, precise diction of his speech. "I really should have been watching where I was going, but these docks are simply so crowded with unsavory sorts that I was, perhaps, caught just a little off-guard. Not at all a pleasant place," he added in a low voice.

Sokka turned around to see a very well dressed man sending a look of distaste at the surrounding docks, and his jaw could have dropped to the ground when he saw who it was.

"Wouldn't you agree, _daughter?_ " said Grand Duke Lao Bei Fong to Toph.

Well.

This was just _great._

Toph, realizing that her father was here – and thus likely her mother as well – and that they had probably seen the entirety of her little freak out, suddenly found herself wishing that the ground would just hurry up and swallow her already. Even Sokka's own embarrassment didn't seem nearly so great as it had moments earlier.

She was mortified.


	14. Uncomfortably Comfortable

The ride back up to Ba Sing Se was perhaps the most uncomfortable one ever, in Toph's modest opinion, and this had nothing to do with the trolley operators. As a matter of fact, the trolley itself moved as smoothly as it ever did, and maybe even a little moreso than usual thanks to the presence of the exceeding wealthy and influential Lao Bei Fong in the earthbending-propelled carriage, alongside his wife Poppy.

No, Toph's discomfort was not so much physical in origin. It was something much more abstract, and deeply rooted than a sore butt from a bumpy ride. Quite frankly, it had nothing to do with the trolley, and everything to do with its passengers.

To be specific, it was her mother and father, and the events that had led up to her... _reunion_... with them. Particularly the fact that the very first thing that they saw of her since she ran away with Aang and the others all those months ago was the spectacle she had made almost drowning – in water that was _barely even three feet deep._

She had been humiliated by this revelation, especially when coupled with the fact that her parents saw every second of it. _They even saw her kiss Sokka._

She had just wanted the ground to swallow her up, at that moment.

It was mortifying. All that effort to establish herself as _strong_ and _independent_ , and it had blown up right in her face in a single moment of weakness. A moment of weakness which her parents had _just so happened_ to be their to see.

 _Sliming **muck!**_ That was _just her luck_ , really!

Toph could have sworn aloud at the unfairness of it all. Hell, she _would've, too_ , under any other circumstances.

But not these. Not here, not now. Not in front of her parents.

Because they _were_ her parents, no matter how much she despised their coddling, and on some level, perhaps, she still yearned for their approval. Not that she would ever admit as much, but eh, y'know. That was just the way things were.

Again, Toph resisted the urge to swear.

She didn't need them. She really didn't.

Honestly. She _didn't._

But still.

It had been utterly humiliating, _absolutely_ _galling_ , to get back on solid ground only to feel those _damned knowing smiles_ on her parents' faces. It was _mortifying._

And the conversation. Oh bleeding _badger-moles_ , the conversation. Now _that_ had been truly humiliating.

Oh, it really had.

And it continued to be. Oh, how it _continued._

"Are you absolutely _certain_ that you are well, dear?" Poppy Bei Fong inquired concernedly as she worriedly eyed her daughter's simply _dreadful_ appearance.

And Toph _did_ look dreadful. There was a hot towel draped over her shoulders, even though Aang and Katara had easily dried her off after her little dip, and her cheeks were ruddy and flushed with a mixture of embarrassment and frustration. Her clothes were also terribly rumpled and disheveled, and her hairband was askew, leaving the girl's raven locks a mess as they fell to and fro and stuck out at odd angles.

It was ghastly, really. Completely unbefitting for a member of the Bei Fong family, let alone the _heiress_.

At times like this, a small part Poppy would almost bemoan her husband's astonishing lack of indiscretions – at this rate, that small part of her reasoned, even a _bastard_ would be better suited to inherit the Bei Fong estate.

Poppy ruthlessly quashed these thoughts, however. She loved her daughter, even if she was also so often disappointed with the child, and she would never want to see her passed up for some _illegitimate_...

Poppy cut off this train of thought before it got any further. It would not do for her to indulge herself in such... _vulgarities_... even if only in the recesses of her own mind.

After all, _R_ _otten roots spawn rotten fruits_ , as the saying goes.

"I'm _fine_ ," Toph finally grunted in answer, for what had to be something like the umpteenth time. There was a dark scowl on her lips as she once more deflected her mother's concern. "I just got a little wet, is all. No big deal."

Poppy frowned softly at this, no doubt thinking something along the lines of how it certainly seemed like it had been a _big deal_ to Toph at the time, with how she had been yelling about drowning – and cursing in a _most_ unladylike fashion, too! – but she decided to let the matter lie, at least for the moment.

A very _short_ moment.

"It is most fortunate you have such a sensible young man looking out for you, daughter."

Toph scoffed.

"You've got it backwards," she muttered acerbically. " _I'm_ the one watching out for _him_." She jabbed a thumb in the direction of Sokka, who was sitting stiffly in his seat a few places down from them, next to his father and sister. "He's hopeless."

Poppy giggled demurely, a small smile forming on her face.

"Yes, it does certainly seem that way at times, does it not?" she murmured, casting a sidelong glance at her husband, who was looking rather out of place, seated there next to her, behaving so self-assured in the crowded trolley. "But, still, I daresay we need them even more than they need us."

Toph snorted, a few silken ebony bangs falling down to dangle before unseeing jade eyes. She refused to dignify that with a response.

She didn't NEED Sokka. She just liked having him around.

That was all.

Honest.

* * *

Sokka was very uncomfortable as he rode on the trolley back up to Ba Sing Se. His back was ramrod straight, and his posture almost painfully stiff. He was sandwiched between his father and his sister, who were in turn seated across from Bato and Aang, respectively.

Across from Sokka himself was also his girlfriend, Suki, but he was currently having a little difficulty meeting her eyes. He was a bit preoccupied with some particular thoughts, and furthermore he was even still a tad flustered over certain recent events.

_A kiss was planted on his cheek, surprising him as he guided Toph back out of the shallow water and onto shore. It was soft and warm – almost astonishingly so – and chaste as well, yet still it stunned him._

_"My hero," the Bei Fong heiress declared uncharacteristically primly, uncaring of whether he had really actually _saved_ her from anything besides her own panic._

Sokka blushed a little at the memory, the faintest tinge of pink coming to his cheeks. He was hardly a little schoolboy to get giddy over such a small gesture, and it was not so much the kiss itself that had him so flustered.

After all, for all of his faults, one thing that could _not_ be said of Sokka was that he was bad with women. For being "just the Meat and Sarcasm Guy", Sokka had had no small number of _interactions_ with the fairer sex over the course of his travels with the Avatar.

Whether it was something as little as a village girl giggling at his jokes and batting her eyelashes at him, or even as much as a short date or brief fling out back "in gratitude for services rendered," as one particularly forward lass had put it, Sokka had _uncannily_ good fortune with the ladies. Compared to all of that, such a little chaste peck on the cheek was barely even a blip on the radar.

So, no, it was not the kiss itself that had him flustered. If anything, it was in fact a matter of _who_ it was that had given him the kiss. Coming from someone else, Sokka likely would have just brushed it off as simple gratitude.

Oh, he might have gloated a little, internally, if the girl doing the kissing had been particularly cute, but it wouldn't have meant much. Not really. Coming from most other girls, he would have interpreted such a thing as a simple display of gratitude, nothing more.

From another girl, it wouldn't have really meant anything.

But not from Toph. No, Toph was not a girly-girly, or even remotely touchy feely. She didn't _kiss_. A punch to the arm, or even a small smile, he could have understood – he _would have_ understood.

But not a kiss. No, _that_ he could not understand. Something like THAT just _didn't make any sense._ It was like waking up one morning only to find that the sky had turned green and grass was now blue. It just didn't make sense.

Sokka hated it when things didn't make sense.

And even when they finally disembarked from their trolley, having at last reached the main hub of the Upper Ring, Sokka was still wrapped up in puzzling over this development. Even when Toph's parents commandeered the girl to take her shopping for a "proper party dress" or something like that, he was still utterly bemused and lost in thought, trying in vain to make sense of a world that felt as though it had suddenly gone quite topsy-turvy.

Even when he and the others finally reached their house, Sokka was still pondering, still wondering.

Why would Toph _possibly_ have kissed him? It just didn't make sense. No matter how he framed it, or how he tried to reason it out, it simply _would not compute._

Toph hated being seen as weak, or girly. Trying to help her was likelier to earn one a bruise than any sort of gratitude – Sokka knew this well from many long weeks of firsthand experience traveling with and fighting alongside the blind wee firecracker. Toph was proud and willful and fiercely independent. She was about as far from the concept of a damsel in distress as was conceivably possible for a young, blind heiress.

Even when Toph _did_ get into a situation she couldn't get out of by herself – and that was exceedingly rare – she did not greet her savior with a kiss. At least, not as far as Sokka knew. For as long as he had known the girl, he could not once recall her showing such a side of herself. He hadn't even realized that there _was_ such a side to Toph.

It would hardly be the first time he'd been so mistaken about something, though. And it would seem that he _had_ been, all things considered.

Still, though. It was just _so_ _hard_ for Sokka to reconcile his image of Toph with what had seen back at the docks – not the almost-drowning part, of course, but the kissing his cheek and calling him her _hero_ part.

He hadn't even known that Toph HAD heroes. And even _if_ that had truly been only in jest, could he honestly say the same of the kiss? Sure, Toph loved joking around and yanking people's chains, but _kissing?_

No, regardless of how he looked at it, Sokka simply could not envision the Toph he knew doing anything like that.

But apparently he didn't know Toph as well as he had thought.

Or maybe he was just over-thinking this whole damn thing. He didn't know.

Sokka sighed, collapsing backwards onto a mat in the living room of the Gaang's house. Aang and Katara had taken Dad and Bato on a grand tour, and Suki was in the other room 'freshening up'.

"I don't get it..." he groaned, frustratedly massaging his temples, as though he hoped this would somehow jump-start his brain. "I just don't get it."

"What don't you get?" inquired someone in a familiar, feminine voice, sitting down next to him.

"Ah! Suki!" Sokka yelped, his cheeks growing pinker, half from a sudden embarrassment with his thoughts and half from the interesting view he got of her body from his present perspective. He had not expected her to finish so quickly, or get back so soon, and it caught him off balance. "Um. Er, it's nothing, really. I was just..."

Suki smiled down at him, her cheeks dimpling cutely as her lips curved upwards.

"Is this about what happened with Toph?" she all but singsonged, a knowing look on her face. When she saw the pink in his cheeks go straight to beet red, she laughed. "No need to look so embarrassed, Sokka! I thought it was _sweet._ "

Sokka's blush only deepened at that.

"It was _so weird_ , though!" he protested. "I mean, Toph doesn't _do_ sweet. It isn't natural!" he insisted.

Suki just shook her head, smiling softly.

"I think it's perfectly natural," she replied. "At the very least, she did the same thing with me back at the Serpent's Pass."

Sokka's eyes widened, and he sputtered as his cheeks grew even redder at the thought of Toph kissing Suki, only the kiss he was envisioning in his head was suspiciously much steamier than the one he had gotten, with much grappling and moaning and wet clothes clinging to some surprising curves (well, surprising in Toph's case, at least). Feeling his heartbeat speeding up and certain... _parts_... stirring to life, Sokka, in a remote corner of his mind, noted with an almost clinical sort of detachment that he was unusually excited over these thoughts and this mental image.

In spite of all logic, Sokka did not feel the least bit upset that Toph had kissed his girlfriend. Quite to the contrary, he found a small part of him perversely wishing to see such a sight firsthand.

Confused and strangely aroused, Sokka mentally filed these notes away for further consideration at a later date.

"Toph _kissed_ you?" Sokka asked, sounding perhaps a bit more intrigued than was strictly appropriate.

Suki just laughed it off, though.

"Yes," she said, chuckling softly at the memory. "Of course, she was absolutely _mortified_ when she realized that I was the one she'd kissed."

Sokka quirked an eyebrow at this. "What? Was she expecting Prince Charming, or something?"

"Or something," Suki answered simply, bending over to plant a kiss on her boyfriend's cheek, on the opposite side of where Toph had. "There. Is that better?"

" _Much_ ," Sokka growled appreciatively. He playfully waggled his eyebrows up at her.

Suki just rolled her eyes, though she was still smiling. Her boyfriend was no knight in shining armor, but at least he was funny. Easy on the eyes, too.

 _And a good kisser_ , she mentally added a moment later as he pulled her down on top of him, entangling their limbs and ensnaring her lips with his. _A VERY good kisser._

She smiled.

Two could play at this game.


	15. A Heart Divided

Toph really didn't see what people liked about shopping. And, yes, she was _perfectly aware_ of the irony behind that statement, so _shut up_.

But she still didn't get what was so great about it. Not really. It just didn't get her motor running. She didn't understand the appeal of it.

She really didn't.

Oh, sure, she liked having _stuff_ – who _didn't_ after all? – and of _course_ she knew that shopping was basically the best way to _acquire_ said stuff. And to that extent, she _could_ enjoy shopping, but only as a _means_ to attaining more stuff.

She didn't enjoy shopping just for shopping's sake. She didn't get any sort of thrill from comparing prices or finding bargains. That was more Sokka's shtick, honestly.

So, _no_ , Toph wasn't really the biggest fan of shopping. She just didn't get that excited over it. She enjoyed it to the extent of that little bit of materialistic glee one might experience upon the acquisition of something one wanted, sure, but no more.

For her, shopping really was ultimately just a way to get stuff. She only liked it if they were on the hunt for something she _wanted_ to get. And the things she _liked_ getting were NOT the same as what most other girls liked – for obvious reasons, she didn't _care_ how shiny or colorful or _pretty_ something was. No, at the end of the day, Toph preferred functionality over fashionability.

Thus, _c_ _lothes_ shopping, especially if done with people like Katara or – spirits forbid – _her parents_ , was in Toph's completely unbiased opinion the single most fiendish, heinously _mind-numbing_ form of torture ever devised by mortal man. It was utterly _excruciating_ in how mud-dammed _boring_ it could be – and usually _was_.

So, no, Toph was NOT happy when her parents dragged her off to buy a "proper party dress". She knew that their idea of "proper" tended to be all but synonymous with _stuffy_ and _boring._ _  
_

And indeed, as her mother and father escorted her from high end boutique to high end boutique over the course of several long hours, Toph felt like she was slowly dying of boredom. They stuffed her into so many fancy-pants costumes that she could scarcely remember what her own clothes felt like at end of her first changing session. And, as a matter of fact, Lao and Poppy had initially been of a mind to _throw away_ Toph's old, worn, patched, threadbare _commoner's outfit_ , and their daughter'd had to do just about everything short of outright _threatening_ her parents with actual, physical, bodily _harm_ before they _finally_ relented and allowed her to keep it.

Even _then_ , though, it was only on the provision that she _at least_ wear a dress for the rest of the day, once they picked one out for her.

And unfortunately for Toph's poor ribs, Lao and Poppy managed to find one soon after. The damnable thing felt at least three sizes too narrow and two sizes too long, and the only upside was that the fabric breathed pretty well and felt soft enough against her skin. That still did not even come _close_ to making up for the number of times she caught herself only _fractions_ of a second away from tripping on the hem of the absolutely _infuriatingly_ long skirt, however.

Toph _hated it_ when her parents used her as a doll to play dress up with. She really did. Her only solace was that this would only be for the party.

...At least, she _hoped_ it would be only for the party.

But a small part of Toph also recalled what Sokka had told her of the "good news" mentioned in the letter her parents had sent, and she could not help the strange and almost _foreboding_ sensation that shot up her spine whenever she thought of it.

She _really_ hoped that this good news actually _was_ good.

She really did.

* * *

"Our daughter has grown much, since the last time we saw her," said Poppy Bei Fong as she sat down beside her husband. They were at a table in a tea shop – the best in the Upper Ring, or so it was reputed – taking a break from shopping for dresses with their little girl. It had been a good first couple of hours, and they had already found about a dozen acceptable outfits.

And, excepting the one presently being worn by Toph – a simple, elegant white affair of finest silk – _of course_ all of these dresses had been carried by servants back to the high class hotel where the Bei Fongs were staying for the duration of their time in Ba Sing Se. They certainly didn't trust the dresses to survive a stay in their daughter's personal wardrobe, not if the state of Toph's _preferred_ clothing was anything to go by.

And speaking of Toph, the girl in question was currently conversing with the owner of the culinary establishment where they had decided to take a break. Apparently she was a close acquaintance of the jovial old man, or else a very frequent customer, as she spoke with him very warmly and familiarly.

Lao, for his part, reluctantly conceded no disapproval for the old tea server, finding nothing particularly objectionable with the man's conduct or demeanor. He was certainly pleasant and charming and all around polite enough. The only real strike Lao could find against the elderly store owner was that he was perhaps just a touch too informal for his taste, but even _that_ was more a matter of personal preference than anything else.

And the tea really _was_ quite good, so Lao was willing to let this slide.

"Do you think so?" he said, at last responding to his wife's remark.

"Yes, indeed. It is subtle, but I daresay she will begin to blossom very soon."

Lao hummed thoughtfully at this, taking another slow sip of his tea.

"All the better, then," he said, his voice low, so as not to draw attention from unwanted listeners. "A young woman makes a better bride than a child, regardless of temperament."

Poppy nodded her head. "It is only a shame that she does not take more care for her appearance," she remarked. "Heaven has blessed her with a natural beauty that few can boast, in my eyes. With time, she could be every bit as lovely as the heiress of the Bei Fong family _should_ be."

"Yes, if only she acted the part," Lao softly opined. "Even a diamond must be carefully and precisely cut and polished before it can truly be called _beautiful_. In its natural state, it is scarcely handsomer than any other common stone."

"Indeed," Poppy murmured. "It is such a shame, but hopefully her husband will not be offended by her roughness. As a soldier I suppose it might be one thing, but as a _bride..._ " She trailed off.

"Mm. Quite," Lao hummed with a short nod. "Even the Water Tribe knows the value of proper femininity."

"Ah? But his sister..."

"As I understand it, she is the exception which proves the rule," Lao replied. "And she is involved with the Avatar, besides."

"Yes, true. She _is_." Poppy nodded, understanding in her eyes. "Even _she_ comports herself more properly than our daughter."

"Indeed, a shame," said Lao. "Hopefully the young prince will not be overly dismayed with our Toph's most... _unwomanly_ manner of bearing." _  
_

Unnoticed to Lao or Poppy, Toph stiffened up slightly, pausing briefly in her conversation with the tea shop's owner.

Poppy smiled softly. "If he is anything like his father, then hopefully he will be understanding."

Lao nodded, taking yet another sip of his tea.

"True, true," said he. "Chief Hakoda did _indeed_ come across as an intelligent man. I am certain that he will be able to make his son see reason, should he object to the marriage."

The moment he whispered those words, Toph's furious shriek tore through the air.

" ** _WHAT?!_** "

* * *

In hindsight, Toph _really_ should have known that her parents would do something like this. After everything else, she probably should have expected it. Of _course_ they would try to marry her off the moment she was even just _barely_ old enough to become a bride.

_Of course._

Considering their prestige and position, and aristocratic dispositions, she honestly should have _anticipated_ this. After all, going behind her back to arrange a marriage wouldn't even be the worst or most _infuriating_ thing that her parents had ever done – all of it, of course, allegedly in the name of Toph's well-being.

It still galled her, though. To think that they would be so _utterly inconsiderate_ , even after everything she had done to assert her independence...? It was absolutely _unbelievable!_ She _could not_ believe them.

How could they be so _insensitive?!_

Toph's blood rushed to her cheeks. White hot indignation surged through her veins like molten fire, roaring in her ears and making her skin burn hot to the touch. Her hands were curled into fists, her teeth tightly clenched as she ground them together, perhaps in the vain hope of venting some of this boiling, seething _anger_.

Cracks were quickly forming in the stone tiles at her feet as Toph tried to control her breathing. She remembered Iroh's advice about taking slow, deep breaths to soothe one's temper when it started to get out of control, but all she managed to do was lend more power to her unconscious ragebending.

The cracks widened and deepened, spreading out and splitting up into countless branches, looking rather like a spiderweb as the floor began to seriously buckle and break at Toph's feet.

She was beyond livid at the revelation of her parents' so-called "good news" – and she was _certain_ that THIS was the _true_ reason they had come up here. Hell, it was probably even the real reason they'd taken her shopping for dresses. Her mother and her father were planning to sell her off – no, they _had_ sold her off!

And not to just anyone, either, _oh no!_ The lucky groom-to-be was none other than _Sokka._

**_Sokka!_ **

_DAMMIT_ , but Toph wanted to **scream**. All those _months_ and _weeks_ of crushing on the Water Tribe teen, only for her parents to _arrange_ for her to marry him? It wasn't _fair!_ How could they _do this_ to her?

Why? Why, oh WHY, did it have to be _Sokka?_ Why couldn't it have been _anyone else?_

Toph wanted to tear at her dress and drop the Jasmine Dragon on her parents' heads and scream her protests at the top of her lungs. But all she could do was stand there and shake with scarcely suppressed fury, glowering blindly in her parents' direction.

Why did it have to be Sokka? Why did they have to pick _him?_

Toph felt something hot and wet prick at her _useless slagging eyes_. Her breath was coming in gasps, her frame shuddering as she clenched her fists tighter and tighter, fingernails biting into the skin of her palms, drawing thin lines of blood. Her knuckles were as white as her face was scarlet, and every minutest movement of her body caused more cracks to travel through the stone foundation of Iroh's tea shop.

Why couldn't her parents have chosen anyone else? Why? Why, oh WHY did it have to be _Sokka?_ Were it anyone else – _anyone else at all_ – this would have been so much simpler. If it wasn't Sokka, she could have already shouted her objections and stormed out the door to go knock down a few walls.

If they hadn't picked Sokka, Toph would not have lost her voice, would not have been unable to force the words from her lips. She would not have felt so conflicted, would not have been so divided within herself.

But she was not so fortunate. No, her parents _had_ chosen Sokka – and from the sounds of it, the arrangement had already been _made_ , too.

Dammit. She wanted to protest, but she also wanted it to go through. She wanted to stay independent, but she also wanted Sokka's lo... his lov... his...

...well, nothing she was willing to admit _out loud_ , she thought with an inward sigh

But _still_. She didn't know what to do. Under _any other_ _circumstances_ , it would have been SO much simpler. But it _wasn't_ simple, much to Toph's chagrin.

 **Dammit.** Why couldn't she just get the words out of her mouth? Why did she have to lose her voice? Why did this have to be _so freaking difficult?_

Why couldn't she just say _NO_ already?

_Why?_

Toph cursed under her breath. She hated being weak.

That was what she thought as she turned on her heel and stalked away from her parents, using her earthbending to blow a hole in the nearest wall. Golden midday sunlight poured in through the hole, and clear watery tears glistened in misty jade eyes as Toph Bei Fong once more ran away from her from her parents and their thrice-damned _duty_.

She could apologize for wrecking Iroh's shop later, but right now Toph just needed to be _alone._

_She needed time to think._

* * *


	16. You did WHAT!?

Rarely do things ever go according to plan. No matter how thoroughly one might strategize, how meticulously one might strive to account for all possible variables, no plan has ever survived long unchanged. No matter how many moves one may think ahead, there will always be something _somewhere_ along the way that will pop up just to throw the proverbial hog-monkey wrench into the works.

No, it was unavoidable, a veritable cosmic law. A plan could never be expected to survive long in battlefield conditions. It just wasn't possible. There were too many variables to take into account at any given instant, and that wasn't even _counting_ the chaotic influence of the human element.

Trying to create a "foolproof plan" was like setting a hundred rubber balls to bounce back and forth off of one another and expecting to then _accurately_ predict down to the _millimeter_ where _every single one of them_ would come to a stop. It was an exercise in futility, at best: an object lesson in the dangers of hubris.

It was impossible to plan ahead of time for every possible eventuality. No mortal could do such a thing – even the vast majority of spirits would not waste their time trying. It just wasn't done.

So, yes. No matter _how_ well they had plotted it out, there was simply _no way_ that their plan could have _possibly_ gone off without a hitch. Hakoda knew this better than anyone, and he had been prepared for things to go south.

Just not this _far_ south.

Of course, a good strategist was _not_ someone who tried to control every piece on the board. No, the best tactical minds were those who were adept in spur-of-the-moment solutions – the ones who could play a situation by ear and come out on top, who could devise a new plan at the drop of a hat when the current one failed.

Hakoda knew this, but there was still only so much that could be done in terms of last-minute adjustments. _Especially_ under the current circumstances.

Those circumstances being Lao and Poppy showing up unannounced and nearly out of breath on the doorstep of the house where his kids had been staying.

"Our daughter... found out our plans ahead of schedule," said Lao, maintaining a properly dignified poise even while red-faced and panting. "She did not... take well to them."

 _That_ , as Hakoda soon learned once they divulged the full tale, was perhaps the understatement of the century. Toph had overheard them discussing the wedding arrangements, apparently, and from the sound of it the girl had been _this_ _close_ to dropping an entire tea shop on her parents' heads.

Unfortunately, the kids had been well within earshot of him and the Bei Fongs.

* * *

"You did **_WHAT?!_** " screeched Sokka and Katara in perfect unison, glaring as one at their dad and Toph's parents.

The two Water Tribe siblings were visibly furious, deep cerulean eyes flashing wildly like the flames of a certain institutionalized princess. Their nostrils were flared and their teeth were bared in matching snarls. Even Aang was looking noticeably disapproving, narrowing cold gray eyes at the adults, his staff clutched firmly in hand.

Only Suki didn't look angry, and that was mostly only because she was too busy being aghast. All color had left her cheeks, leaving them so ashen white that at first glance one might not be blamed for believing she was wearing her war paint, and her eyes were nearly as round as dinner plates. Her mouth hung open, wordlessly agape.

"I don't _believe this_ ," Katara hissed, glowering furiously at her father and the Bei Fongs. Bato was hiding somewhere out of sight, having split as soon as he'd first seen the livid expression on the young waterbending prodigy's face. "How could you do this to Toph? And _Sokka_ , too!"

"Yeah!" Aang chimed in, readily leaping to his girlfriend's support. "How could you?!"

Hakoda nearly flinched under the pressure of the unhappy looks being sent his way, but Lao simply scoffed.

"As Toph's parents, it is our prerogative to ensure that our daughter is betrothed and provided for," he said this slowly, as though he were explaining something to a young child. "It is only proper that we should choose a husband for her."

This raised Katara's hackles, the young, independent waterbender having a very strong opinion on this sort of thing. She shot Lao a glare so frigid that Aang and the others half expected the man to become spontaneously encased in a block of ice.

"Toph doesn't need a _husband_ to provide for her!" snapped the Water Tribe lass. "Not so young! And even if she _did_ , she shouldn't need to have someone picked out _for her!_ It should be HER choice!"

"Right!" chorused Sokka, and Suki belatedly chimed in with a weak, _"What she said!"_ before Sokka continued on with, "Toph doesn't need my help, and besides! I've got _Suki_!"

He wrapped an arm around his girlfriend's waist – possessively, defensively – and the Kyoshi Warrior seemed to be emboldened by this. Suki's back stood straighter, and her eyes glanced more fiercely between the Bei Fongs and her boyfriend's father. She placed a hand on Sokka's hip, raising her nose defiantly at their meddlesome elders.

"You can't force Sokka into this," she said lowly. Her voice was soft, but it held an edge as sharp as any sword. "Not any more than you can force Toph. They have a right to _choose_ who they'll marry."

Aang and Katara and Sokka all grinned at this, but they were hard grins, warlike. Cold and sharp they were, like the points of spears held in array against the trio of marital conspirators.

Their eyes sparked like torches in the black of night, flaring suddenly bright and hot as though under the whispered exhortations of a stoking breeze. Their spirits were growing stronger and brighter as they each affirmed the others' convictions in the rightness of their cause.

One after the other, they pushed the assault, lobbing their protests and complaints and accusations at Hakoda and Lao. Their words grew sharper and fiercer with every turn of phrase, their indignation at the injustice of this plot – whether real or perceived – became steadily greater and more furious.

 _"How could you betray our trust!"_ and _"Do you have midnight sun madness?!"_ and _"We refuse to let this happen!"_ they cried one after the other, and many more things also they said. One after the other, with unrelenting ferocity, they lambasted the conspirators, decried their plots and vilified them for lies of omission and commission. Every angry word, whether spoken in defense of Toph and Sokka's rights or in criticism of the outdated, backwards practices that these three were carrying on, was filled with bitterness and bile quite uncharacteristic for most of the Gaang, riled up as they were by Katara's words and the trio's actions.

They continued in this manner for what could have been hours (or so it felt, but was more likely closer along the line of ten or twenty minutes, in reality), meticulously listing every single fault with the concept of arranged marriage, the practice of all but selling off ones' sons and daughters in such a fashion, and even the very establishment political which enabled and _encouraged_ such things. They thoroughly deconstructed every point of this plan and cast multiple aspersions upon the character and integrity of any and all who were responsible for allowing Hakoda and the Bei Fongs to arrange a marriage between their eldest son and only daughter, respectively, ranting and soliloquizing until they were red-faced and panting, skin slick with sweat.

Katara, of course, had been the one to lead the charge with her impassioned speech and rhetoric, and she was also the last to lose steam. But she _did_ finally come to a halt in her declamations of this conspiracy, her shoulders heaving as the last of her indignation and self-righteous fury left her. She was completely spent, emotionally, and she had thrown out every single thing she could think of.

"Well?" she said lowly, giving her father a pointed look. "Do you _still_ think we'll let you go through this?"

She did her best to glower at him, though it was a little difficult with how _drained_ she felt, after having put everything she had into her long and passionate rant. But she felt satisfied, at least a little. Surely they would listen to this, she thought, and realize what a **_horrible_** idea this arranged marriage was.

But then Hakoda had the gall to simply shake his head and _smile_ at them. And _then_ he proceeded to explain his reasoning behind why he had agreed to this.

As their father spoke, Katara could not help but notice the look that began to dawn on Sokka's face. It was not a happy or accepting one, exactly, but still Katara could help but find that she felt that she did not at all like what it implied.

He couldn't _actually_ be considering this, _surely!_

No, it had to be something else. It had to be.

She was just mistaken, was all. Just mistaken.

_She had to be._

* * *

Iroh was a kind man. He was a good friend and advisor, slow to anger and filled with decades' worth of sage advice and useful proverbs. He sympathized readily with others, and he treated the problems of total strangers as seriously as he would treat his own. He would sooner laugh at _himself_ than at someone who came to him for his advice. (Though he _did_ have a very good sense of humor, in his own modest opinion!)

Iroh was a good friend. He loved freely, in a grandfatherly sort of way, and he was always there when someone needed him. And he _always_ seemed to know _just_ what someone needed, whether they were angry or upset or just plain burned out. Whatever the problem, he would be at the ready with a cup of piping hot tea in his hand and a slew of old saws and aphorisms.

This was the same for a complete stranger as it was for a close friend. And it was the same for Toph, too.

"You forgot your tea," the old man said kindly, sitting down next to the young blind earthbender atop a short stone wall overlooking much of the Upper Ring's more picturesque scenery. Behind them was a trail of destruction that led all the way back to the Jasmine Dragon, the tea shop barely visible to his eyes as a little smudge of earthy color in the distance.

Toph sighed, accepting the cup from her elderly friend. The beverage inside was still hot – no doubt Iroh had used his firebending to keep it warm – and she could feel the fragrant steam wafting up into her face.

She kicked her legs back and forth through the empty air, rhythmically tapping her bare, calloused heels against the smooth stone of the wall. They weren't more than a few feet above the ground, but the wall was situated atop a gentle gradient, a softly sloping hillside that rolled downwards into one of a number of parks in the massive city of Ba Sing Se.

From the intermittent vibrations of her heels slapping the side of the wall, Toph had by now picked up a very good picture of the park below them. She could almost count the individual blades of grass in her head, feeling each one like a little _blip_ in the back of her mind, and she could feel the roots of the occasional tree reaching deep into the earth. If she paid attention, she could almost even _feel_ the roots slowly growing, moving, _stretching_ further and deeper along innumerable branching paths, an ever-expanding net that spread far and wide in search of moisture and minerals. She could perceive how these roots, from the oldest and thickest to the slenderest and newest, pushed aside the earth as they slowly _slowly_ grew, shifting and packing the soil in such subtle, gradual movements that perhaps none but she and the badger-moles could truly sense them.

It was beautiful, to her, in a way for which human language really had no words. Even if she were of a poetic inclination, she could never possibly explain it to the others. Not in words. It was, like the sunset (or so she supposed), something you had to _see_ to really appreciate. Even if she were of a mind to do so, Toph could not possibly describe it in a way that could ever really capture how _breathtaking_ it was, just sitting there and really thinking about the things she so often took for granted.

Like a man gazing upon a painting with fresh eyes, Toph felt like she was really "seeing" the world for the first time in years. It was amazing what a change of perspective could do, and there were few things that could really turn your view of the world and your place in it upside down quite like learning that your parents had gone behind your back to secretly engage you to your best friend. _Especially_ when you have had a crush on said friend for nearly as long you have known him, yet also possess a nearly instinctive aversion to such things as arranged marriages.

Toph sighed, belatedly taking a sip of her tea.

It was good, as good as Iroh's brew usually was. Which is to say, it was _excellent_ , and the steaming hot concoction did wonders for the painful, writhing knot in her gut.

"Thanks, Old Man," she said with an uncharacteristic quietude to her speech, her lips barely so much as twitching as she slowly and thoughtfully sipped at her tea.

"Do not mention it. It was the least I could do, for such a valued customer and friend," Iroh replied with a smile that stretched the wrinkled skin of his face.

Toph could tell, however, from a slight, scarcely perceptible shifting in the pitch of his tone and the very particular way in which he currently set the weight of his muscles upon his stout, weather-worn frame that there was much more beneath the surface than he consciously expressed. He was concerned, but he was also not saying as much, knowing how proud the young earthbender could be. He had no desire to coddle her, or talk down to her.

He just wanted to be there for Toph, and help her however he could, even if it was just by sitting there quietly next to her as she thought.

That was something Toph really appreciated about the retired general.

For the next few minutes, they sat there in silence, just sipping at their tea and relaxing in the sunlight. Both knew that they would have to talk, sooner or later, about what had happened back at the Jasmine Dragon, but for now they were content to simply sit and think and bask in the sunlight.

This did wonders for Toph's anxiety. She knew that Iroh would want to talk, eventually, but he was willing to wait until she was ready. He knew that forcing the matter would not help anything, in the long run. Toph had to confront it on her own terms, and at her own pace.

He was perfectly willing to wait until she was ready to talk.

Because Iroh was just a good friend, like that.


	17. To Be, or Not

Sokka and Logic had something of a love-hate relationship. He was a man of science, to be sure, a believer in reason and fact and demonstrable results, but this did not mean that he and Logic always saw eye to eye. If anything, this only made things more noticeable on the frequent occasions when he _did_ find himself at odds with it.

For as much as he fancied himself a Renaissance man and an enlightened modern soul, Sokka was still very much prone to sudden bouts of irrationality. As intelligent as the young man could be, he could also be incredibly foolish when the mood struck him, and his friends and family could readily attest to his utter, apparent _idiocy_ during such periods. He was emotional and impulsive at the best of times, and regardless of how smart he might have been, he still did some very stupid things.

But Sokka WAS smart. At the end of the day, underneath all the jokes and japes and horseplay tomfoolery lay a keen intellect – unhoned and raw, perhaps, but still undeniably sharp. He was brilliant, in his own way. He had a mind for wheels and gears and strategies martial, a very secular and pragmatic brand of cunning and wit. In some ways, he had a mind that was ahead of his time – a mind best suited to invention, innovation.

Logic, in this way, could be both Sokka's greatest ally, and his most dire foe. This time was no exception.

_His father was right._

Oh, Sokka was loth to accept it, but he knew it was true. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but they _would_ need all the help they could get if they ever wanted to restore the Southern Water Tribe to its former glory. The South Pole had been absolutely _devastated_ by the war, and even with the assistance of their sister tribe in the north it might yet take _decades_ for them to rebuild.

At the rate of reconstruction described in his father's letters, Sokka knew that it might be generations still before the South Pole could again be considered a world power. As it stood, he knew that just about the only thing keeping them relevant _at all_ on the stage of global politics was his and Katara's status as the Avatar's closest friends. And even _that_ was more Katara than himself. Sokka and Aang really weren't particularly close. Not anymore.

Perhaps it was the fact that the last airbender was dating his sister, or maybe it was the fact that the warrior had been so insistent on dealing with Ozai in a more... _permanent_ fashion than the Avatar chose. But whatever the case, these days there was just a little bit more distance between them than there used to be. Maybe not so much so that it was readily apparent to an outside observer, but the distance was still there all the same. Aang and Sokka just weren't as close as they used to be.

It was all Katara, to be perfectly honest. _She_ was the Avatar's girlfriend, the last South Pole waterbender, the future of their tribe. She was, in a way, a symbol of everything the Southern Water Tribe had lost to Azulon's Raids, but also of everything they might one day reclaim. She was a pillar of their tribe's culture, the last southern waterbender. And she was also a bridge between the North and South, the one who had challenged the backwards traditions of the Northern Water Tribe and gotten them to begin to _change_. She was the hope of the tribe, a beacon that guided them to a better future.

Next to all of that, Sokka really just could not help but feel so small and insignificant. He knew, in some corner of his mind, that this was foolish, that they were both equally important to the future of the tribe, both equally beloved of their father, but the young warrior could not help the feelings of inadequacy that started to pop up like weeds whenever he began comparing himself with his sister. It might have been stupid and illogical to think so, perhaps, but still he felt as though he had little to nothing to offer to his tribe, to the world. Certainly nothing that couldn't be offered by any other man or warrior, he thought.

He had given so much, already, to end the war and bring about peace, but now Sokka felt like he had nothing left to give. And that thought pained him more than any broken leg. As son of the Chief, nay, a son of the TRIBE, Sokka was defined by his duty.

And was that not how Yue had felt? Regardless of whether it made them happy or sad, they all had their own duties to the Tribe, to their people.

That was what she had told him, wasn't it? Certainly, it was how she had lived her life. She had been willing to marry a man she did not love, just to ensure the continuation of Northern Chief's line. She had readily given up her life to revive the moon spirit, to save her people and the world from certain destruction.

Yue had placed her duty above even her own happiness, and in doing so she saved them all.

As great as Sokka's love for the princess had been, equally deep was his admiration of her. In a way, she was everything he could ever hope to be. She had not been a warrior or a chief, but she had still been so strong, so brave. She had given everything of herself to protect everyone she loved, and everything they stood for – in that way, she represented to Sokka the ideal of what a warrior should be, of what a _chief_ should be.

Sokka admired Yue more than anyone else. Because of her, he believed in his heart of hearts that he must place his duty to his people above all else. And because of this, it pained him so greatly to feel as though there was nothing he was needed for, nothing he could do that could not be done better by someone else. For so long, his duty had been to protect his sister and the tribe, but neither one needed his protection anymore. The former could take care of herself, and the latter once more had real men and warriors to defend it.

By all accounts Sokka had fulfilled his duty, but once the satisfaction he got from this knowledge had faded, he was left with naught but a feeling of emptiness in the pit of his stomach. He no longer knew what his duty was, what he was supposed to do. For so long his only goal had been to help Aang defeat the Fire Lord and end the war, but now it was done with and over, and he simply had no idea where to go with his life.

Sokka, in some dark forgotten corner of his mind, felt _lost_ without his duty. To believe that you were without a purpose, that you had no reason to exist, was an indescribably _horrible_ feeling – perhaps the worst in the world. The young man was far from the point where he might despair of life or long to end himself, but still. In the middle of night, when all was dark and all were silent, he could not help but feel a little melancholic, staring up at the ceiling and pondering morosely about just what he planned do with his life.

If he was adrift, lost in a world so different from everything he had ever known, Sokka did not show it. Not where his friends could see. But that did not mean that he felt no sense of malaise at the lack of direction in his life. Even if it was only a small concern at the back of his mind, it was still there, and it still upset him in those lonely, quiet hours when he had no one but himself for company. When he was alone, he silently bemoaned what felt like a complete loss of purpose.

He felt like there was nothing left that he could do for his people, like his life no longer had any real meaning. He did not show it, but it bothered him that he was so often left behind while the others went off to help decide the fate of the world. The depression and sense of useless which had been dispelled and forestalled by his lessons with Piandao had now returned, had been stalking him from the moment he cast away Space Sword and Boomerang.

The world didn't need warriors any more, but a warrior was all he had ever been. He was unneeded in this new world, or so whispered to him the voices of doubt and self-loathing when all else was silent. He did his best to focus on the positive, to distract himself from these ugly feelings, but they did not go away. He could not so easily banish them.

Sokka felt lost because it seemed there was nothing more for which he was needed, nothing more he could do, but according to his father this was not the case. There _was_ yet something that he could do for their people, a duty to their tribe which only he could fulfill. It was NOT something that he would be _glad_ to do, but still it WAS something that he _could_ do.

An offer had been made to his father, the offer of an alliance most useful. The wealth of the Bei Fong family, as well as its considerable political clout, could go a _very_ long way toward restoring the Southern Water Tribe to its former power and glory. An alliance with the Bei Fongs, and by extension with all the other families with which the Bei Fongs were allied, would be just about the best possible thing to help their tribe regain its rightful place in the world.

Once, the Southern Water Tribe had been a nation unto itself, but the Hundred Year War had diminished it to a pale shadow of its former self. If ever they hoped to restore their tribe to its former glory, they would need all the help they could get. This alliance, this union, could be just what they needed. They could have all the considerable resources of the Bei Fong family backing their reconstruction efforts, and the only price they asked in return was a marriage.

Between their daughter and Hakoda's son.

Between Toph and Sokka.

He really hated it when logic was used against him.

All of this and more was going through Sokka's mind as he sighed and glanced aside at his girlfriend. The look on her face, the look of somber resignation, was all he needed to see. She, like himself, was a warrior. She understood the need to place duty above happiness, to sacrifice of yourself for the good of your people.

They were alike, him and her, in a way that none of their other friends could entirely match. On a basic level, Suki understood Sokka, and he understood her. They were cut from the same mold, two warriors, two leaders. Even the differences only served to emphasize how alike they really were, on a fundamental level.

Both of them knew their duty.

_I'm sorry._

Sokka's lips formed these words, though no sound came out. He didn't need to say it, of course – he knew that Suki would have done the same thing in his situation – but it still helped him feel a little better, even just doing that much. It was a small gesture, insignificant really, but sometimes those were the most powerful of all.

Suki gave him a hollow smile, and she nodded in understanding. Sokka weakly reciprocated, before turning once more to face his father. With a heavy heart, he sighed, and then he spoke.

"You're right," said he. "It's for the best."

Sokka deferentially lowered his head in something somewhere between a deep nod and a short bow. When he straightened back up, he then turned to face the Bei Fongs. His friends' eyes widened in shock, realization dawning on them as they watched with almost horrified expressions as he bowed low and forced out with a faintly cracking voice the words:

"I would be _honored_ to take your daughter as my wife."


	18. Carpe Diem

When it came to moral support, there was something to be said for silence. Words of advice or encouragement were often a great help, to be sure, but sometimes all you really needed was to have a friend beside you. Even without saying a word, just knowing that someone was there by your side could do you wonders.

Of course, the opposite was also true. Simply talking about your problems could do so much to help you overcome them, and sometimes the only way to get through something _at all_ was to talk about it.

Even if you _really_ didn't want to.

Toph sighed.

"Why does everything have to be so _complicated?_ " she groaned, listlessly tapping the heel of her foot against the side of the wall upon which she was seated.

This was the first thing she had said for several minutes, and it took Iroh a moment to think up a response.

"Sometimes, things are complicated only because we make them so," he sagely replied, before somewhat sheepishly adding a second later, "Of course, there are also many other times where they were simply just that complicated to begin with."

" _Thanks_ ," muttered Toph sarcastically, feeling a bit shorter with the elderly tea server than usual. "That's _real_ helpful."

Iroh shrugged. Through the stone of the wall, Toph could feel the shift in how he distributed his weight as he moved deceptively thick arms and broad shoulders in a gesture of ' _What can I say?_ '

"There is no single, absolute answer," he told her simply, matter-of-factly, "What is right in one instance may not be so in another. What looks simple at first glance may in truth be a very _complicated_ matter, and likewise what _looks_ complicated might actually be quite simple."

He smiled knowingly, and Toph could feel the muscles moving around his mouth, pulling his lips up at the corners.

"You are upset because your parents arranged a marriage between you and your friend, yes," he continued, "but I also sense that there is something more to it than just that. Something _deeper_."

Toph winced. That hit a bit closer to home than she was willing to admit.

"Like I said," she replied evasively. "It's _complicated_."

"So it would seem," said Iroh with a short nod. "Such things usually are, I suppose."

"You _'suppose'?_ " Toph repeated, a hint of disbelief in her tone.

Iroh's smile widened, and Toph could practically _feel_ the dimples forming in his weather-worn cheeks.

"The marriage between myself and my late wife was also an arranged one," he responded plainly. "Her father was a very important figure in the Fire Nation nobility – a distant cousin of my own father, as a matter of fact. Count Fuusen was a man of high standing and great power even among the nobility, and he held the loyalty of many of the lesser noble families," he explained. "The marriage between myself and his his daughter was arranged by my father, Fire Lord Azulon as a means of consolidating his support base, back when the two of us were but children."

Toph blanched. "I'm sorry," she said, sounding uncharacteristically sincere in her apology. "That must have been _awful_."

But Iroh simply waved off her concern, laughing good-naturedly.

"Not at all!" he said. "Not at all! Do not feel sorry for me. I knew well my duties as the crown prince, and I accepted it gracefully." He sounded somewhat nostalgic as he continued. "Besides that, my wife was a good woman, and I was happy with her. We may have been pushed together by the designs of our parents, but still we made the best of our situation. We made our own happiness with one another, and I came to love her dearly. She felt the same way about me, too, with time, and she gave birth to my dear son as well."

He trailed off after this, sounding wistful, and Toph could not help smiling just a little. She recalled the happy tales Iroh had told her of his beloved son, Lu Ten, who had tragically lost his life before the Outer Wall of Ba Sing Se at the end of the Six Hundred Day Siege. She knew the old man had cared deeply for his only child, and she felt almost like she knew late Fire Prince a little bit herself just from all the stories Iroh had shared with her.

"You really loved her, didn't you?" she murmured softly. Her cheeks felt a little warm and tingly, and there was a strange sensation of weightlessness in her stomach. She was trying hard not to think about how this could potentially relate to her and Sokka, because she _did not want to go there_. _  
_

"Yes," said Iroh, placing a large, warm hand on her shoulder. His palms were rough and calloused from many long decades of fighting and firebending and working with his hands. The gesture was comforting and reassuring, a sign that the old man was there for her. "Yes, I truly did. She was a wonderful woman, and it grieved me deeply when I learned of her untimely death, all those years ago."

Toph was quiet for a moment. Her head tilted forward slightly, allowing a few loose obsidian bangs to fall forward over her eyes. Her cheeks felt nearly as hot as Iroh's tea, and she was sure the blush on her face must have been obvious to anyone with a working pair of eyes.

"Do you..." she said slowly, quietly, forcing the words off her tongue with no small effort of will. "Do you think... Do you think that me and Sokka..." she stammered, having considerable difficulty getting these words out of her mouth, "that we could be like... like... like _youandyourwife?_ " these final words fell from her lips in a nervous jumble, spoken so quickly that it sounded more like one big word than four short ones.

Iroh still managed to get the gist of it, though, if the way he comfortingly squeezed her shoulder was anything to go by.

"It is not something that would happen all at once," he said in a half-cautionary sort of tone, "but who can say? Perhaps you could, and perhaps you could not. Love works in mysterious ways."

He paused for a second, and Toph could _hear_ the grin in his voice, let alone feel it with her tremor sense, when he resumed.

"...But then you _are_ fortunate, in a way, to be arranged a marriage with a man for whom you already harbor such profound affection..."

Toph punched the old campaigner in the arm, her face burning hotter than a grease fire.

He simply laughed.

"Ah, youth!" said Iroh, chuckling indulgently as he rubbed his victimized arm. It was more for show than anything else, of course. Not only was he tough enough to tank earthbending attacks with his own body, but the punch had been halfhearted, besides. "To be young and in love, once more!" he said, giving a theatrically wistful sigh.

Toph snorted, doing her best to cover up the sound of her giddily skipping heart pounding in her ears. She was still blushing, the heat reaching now all the way down to her chest and shoulders. Her dress felt painfully restricting as she thought of Sokka _as her husband_ , but it was not entirely unpleasant.

If that made sense.

"If only things were that simple..." the Blind Bandit muttered after a moment of silence, talking half to herself, and half to Iroh. "But they aren't. Even if I _wanted_ to marry Sokka – _and I'm not saying I do!_ – he loves **Suki**. If I allowed my parents to take that away from him, I'd be just as bad as they are."

"I think you may be presuming too much, to call them ' _bad_ '," Iroh remarked. "They are your parents, after all. Misguided or not, I am certain that they have only your best interests in mind."

"Whatever." Toph scoffed. "But what about Sokka? He and Suki are together, and I... well, I _like_ Suki. I don't want..." she trailed off, stumbling over her words a little as she spoke. "Er, that is, even _if_ I wanted Sokka as a... um..." She felt her blush deepen, unable to say it out loud. "...well, even _then_ , I wouldn't want to take him away from Suki. She's cool, even if she has a lame sense of humor. I couldn't do that to her."

Iroh smiled, squeezing her shoulder reassuringly.

"You have a good heart," he told her. "I understand why you are uncertain. And I can respect that. Young Suki is fortunate to have a friend like yourself."

Toph grimaced.

"I'm not such a good friend," she muttered. "As far as Suki goes... Well, that's only a part of the issue, really. And a small one, at that." She sighed. "More than anything, it's because I just don't want to give my parents the _satisfaction_ ," she confessed. "If I ever marry Sokka, or _anyone_ – and that's a BIG if! – I don't want it to be because my parents _arranged it_. Do you get what I mean?"

"Yes, I think I do," replied Iroh. "You are strong-willed, independent. You desire to make your own path in life, to shape your own destiny. Your pride demands you object to this union."

"Yeah," said Toph somewhat bitterly, her expression darkening just a little. "That sounds about right. If I went along with this marriage, I'd be letting my parents win."

"But is this really a matter of winning or losing?" wondered Iroh rhetorically. "Pride can be a dangerous thing, if you let it rule you."

Toph scowled faintly.

"What are you trying to say, old man?"

Iroh smiled enigmatically.

"Nothing," he said. "I am not trying to say anything. In the end, this is _your_ decision to make. I cannot tell you what to do. It is not my place to do so." He patted her shoulder companionably. "In the end, we must all shape our own destiny. We must each make our own choices."

Toph sighed, looking uncharacteristically vulnerable as she pulled her knees up to her chin, wrapping her arms around her legs.

"But what if I don't _want_ to shape it?" she murmured, her voice unusually soft and quiet. "I don't want to choose. It's too hard. Why can't things just stay the same?"

"Change is inevitable, young one," said Iroh gently. "The year grows old, and the seasons continue to turn. Nothing can stay the same, forever."

Toph looked morose as she all but buried the lower half of her face in the fine, smooth silk of her skirt.

"I don't want to change," she whispered. "I don't want Sokka to change, or Aang, or Katara, or any of them. I want them to stay the same. To stay with me."

"Not all friendships are destined to last," Iroh told her, "but that does not mean your friends will leave. They may change, as the years pass, but so will you. Perhaps you will grow closer as time passes, or perhaps your paths in life will lead you apart from them. But remember this, Toph: whatever might happen in the future, we _live_ in the _present_.

"Make the best of every day, and live your life to the fullest. Every choice has its risks, and there is no doubt that you might regret some of the choices you make, later on down the line. To do anything is to take a chance, after all, and you might regret some of the chances you take. However, I _can_ guarantee that you _will_ regret the chances you _never_ take."

Toph was silent for a long moment, minutes passing by as she thought about Iroh's words.

"...you know what? I think I get what you're saying," she said at length. "And you're probably right."

She smiled, softly at first, but it gained strength as she continued to speak.

" _I'm the Blind Bandit_ ," she breathed, her posture straightening as she uncurled and began to once more sit upright. There was confidence in her voice once more as she talked. "I control my _own_ fate. No matter what path I take, it will be because **I** _chose_ to take it. I'm not some weepy lily liver who can't even think for herself. I'm TOPH BEI FONG, and I won't let ANYONE tell me what to do!"

She laughed triumphantly, the sound ringing loud and clear in the air. Then she hopped down from the short wall, her feet landing in the soft, grassy soil of the park's gently sloping hillside. She was grinning from ear to ear, looking as though she had just gotten a great weight off of her chest.

It was somewhat comical, seeing the rowdy young chit act like her usual, cocksure self while wearing such an elegant, no doubt _expensive_ dress. Iroh half expected the girl to immediately drop onto her back and start rolling in the dirt, half to spite her parents and half just because she simply _loved_ getting dirty.

She didn't, though. Instead, she kicked the soil, causing the ground to shake in a slight, only _just_ noticeable tremor.

She laughed again, and Iroh smiled.

"I take it you have made your decision?" he said.

"Yeah!" Toph beamed, spinning around to face in the direction of Iroh's voice and vibrations. "I've made up my mind! Ha ha ha!" she laughed again, sounding downright _giddy_ , in that rough and tumble manner of hers. "For once, I'm gonna just do what I want, and to the _Pit_ with the consequences!"

She laughed once more.

Iroh's smile widened, and he wisely refrained from commenting that this sounded an _awful lot_ like how she usually lived. Wisely, because he _knew_ Toph – he was one of the very few people she had ever truly opened up to – and so he knew _exactly_ what she was implying.

Idly, he remembered an old saying he had come across in a rural part of the Earth Kingdom, one which had allegedly been co-opted from the Air Nomads long before the War.

_You only leaf once._

Iroh didn't really get what that was supposed to mean, even with all his lore and wisdom, and neither had any of the people he'd asked, but he had a feeling it was applicable to Toph's situation. Somehow.

Shaking his head in something like amusement, the old general gingerly heaved himself off of the wall. His backside was aching in discomfort from sitting for so long on the hard stone surface of the structure, yet he could not help but chuckle at the way Toph was carrying on.

"I wish you luck," he told the girl, speaking from the bottom of his heart. She was a good child, and he sincerely hoped that she found what she was looking for.

Toph simply laughed.

"I don't _need_ luck~!" she declared with complete confidence. "I'm _Toph Bei Fong!_ "

Iroh laughed.

She was probably right.


	19. Doubt

Destiny is a funny thing, when you think about it. Some immeasurable, intangible force or substance which governs the outcome of every single event and plots the course of history from beginning to end. It's mind-boggling. Such a powerful, awesome thing – such a grand, romantic concept. Destiny is incredible.

_In theory._

In reality, however, there are many people who would have a _thing_ or two to say to Destiny. There are many people who would gladly, _eagerly_ give it a big, whopping knuckle sandwich, or maybe a good old fashioned kick in the balls. Because, in practice, Destiny has probably screwed over _far_ more people than it has ever _helped_. For every young boy or girl who gets to marry the princess or prince of their dreams, there are dozens more who have to settle for someone whose guts they don't _completely_ hate.

And sometimes both parties are present in a single given union.

One man's paradise is another man's hell. One person's ideal outcome is another's worst case scenario. In the end, it all comes down to perspective. You have to consider what every given party would have wanted, and when you do, you will realize that not everyone's dreams can come true.

It's simply impossible, statistically speaking. You can't please everyone.

Everybody ruins everything for everyone else. Every time, without fail. That's just how the world works.

Star-crossed lovers are far more common than you might think.

Sokka could tell you this from personal experience.

* * *

"I'm sorry, Suki."

"Don't be," she told him. "I understand. You have your duty. I have mine."

"I still love you," he murmured gazing deep into her eyes. His ocean blues gleamed with an uncanny intensity as they pierced her through. "Never forget that."

She flushed, and she looked away.

"I won't," she promised him, though she found herself unable to meet his gaze. "You have my word."

He grinned wryly, gently cradling her chin in his hand.

"Look at me. Please," he whispered, and he guided Suki's eyes back to his.

He felt her tremble a little beneath him.

"I love you, Suki."

She looked up at him, and her eyes were glassy in the dim light of the windowless, abandoned hallway.

"I wish it didn't have to be this way..." she breathed, reaching up to tenderly stroke his warm, brown cheek.

"So do I," he said. "But I have my duty."

"Yes, you do," she agreed. "And so do I."

She sighed.

"Maybe if things had been different..." Sokka murmured, and Suki smiled up at him. But the smile stretched unnaturally, and it did not reach her eyes – it was clearly forced, and Sokka's heart broke a little at the pain he saw in that expression.

"I'm sorry, Sokka," she said, tears glistening in the corners of her eyes. "But as the future chief of your tribe, you will need a wife. Not a lover."

Sokka's smile, already weak, faded, and his eyes dimmed.

"...is it true?" he asked her. "I've heard people talk, but... I didn't put any stock in it. I didn't want to."

"I'm sorry," she said again, smiling sadly at up at him even as she drew his body close into hers. "I should have known it wouldn't work. I should have told you."

Sokka shook his head, clamping his eyes shut. He looked as though he were fighting back tears, and he sniffed weakly before speaking again.

"Don't say that," he told her. "You don't know that. I... we could have made it work. I'm sure of it. We would have figured _something_ out."

Suki silenced him with a kiss. It was short and chaste, but the electric warmth of it stirred up such a hungry longing within the young man that it was all he could do to hold himself back.

"Don't," she told him, and that single word held so much meaning in that moment. "You have your tribe to think of. What would people have said, do you think? A chief who didn't marry, who took a lover but not a wife? No. I couldn't do that to you. I..."

Her chest heaved, rising up as she took a deep breath, then falling back down as she let it back out in a sight.

"...I think I always knew it would have to end like this," she whispered, and the tears ran freely down her cheeks, hot and salty. "On some level, I think I knew that it could never work. Our cultures our too different." She tried to smile, but it came out as more of a grimace. "As a man of the Water Tribe, you need a wife – but as a disciple of Kyoshi, that is the one thing I can never be."

This time, it was Sokka who silenced Suki with a kiss.

"Don't talk like that," he told her, pulling back after a painfully short and wonderful and _whymustitend_ moment of contact between their lips. "I... would have liked to marry you, but... as long as I had your love, I think, it honestly wouldn't have mattered."

"But it's too late," she said softly, sadly. "Your wife's been chosen for you."

Sokka frowned.

"I wish I could have said no."

Suki wrapped her arms more tightly round his body.

"You wouldn't have," she said. "You know your responsibility to your tribe. You're a good man."

"I sure don't _feel_ like it," he muttered. "A good man could have thought of a way to stay with the woman he loved."

Suki shook her head.

"But a truly great man knows when he must sacrifice of himself for the good of his people," she said solemnly, gravely. "I don't blame you for your choice, Sokka. You know I would have done the same thing, if I were in your shoes. We're warriors." She smiled weakly. "Sacrifice is our _life_."

"I wish you _would_ blame me," Sokka whispered weakly, his breath hitching slightly as he stared into her eyes, fiercely blinking away the burning tears of shame. "I wish you wouldn't be so willing to accept this. I wish I didn't have to do this. I wish it didn't make _so much sense_."

"If wishes were fish, there'd be no room in the ocean," said Suki with a wan sort of smile, holding Sokka firmly in her embrace.

He chuckled weakly in spite of himself.

"Maybe," he said. "You're probably right."

She kissed him.

"Of course I am," she breathed, a halfhearted smile curving her soft, warm, sweet, inviting lips. "The woman is _always_ right."

Sokka sighed.

"Well, just this once, I wish you weren't," he said, looking away from her, unable to meet her gaze.

Suki's smile drooped almost as quickly as it had risen, and she sighed.

"So do I," she whispered, pressing her cheek against his hard, bare chest and closing her eyes. "So do I."

* * *

Meanwhile, as two young lovers embraced for what they sincerely believed would be the last time, two younger, less intimate lovers tried to make sense of a world which seemed to have been turned on its head.

In the living room of the Gaang's house, Katara paced back and forth, muttering darkly under her breath. The young waterbender was clearly unwilling to come to terms with certain recent events, her eyes hard and hot as they flitted this way and that. Her lips were drawn into a thin, tight line as she wore a hole in the rug with her feet, stalking to and fro with an almost manic glint in her eyes.

Bato and Hakoda (she was NOT in the mood to call the man father right now) had gone off with the Bei Fongs to do something or other, she wasn't sure what, exactly. Maybe they were going to look for Toph, or maybe they were going to discuss the specifics of the wedding or whatever.

Katara didn't know, and honestly she could not be bothered to _care_. Not now. She was too busy thinking and muttering, pacing and pondering.

"What has gotten into Sokka?" the young Water Tribe lass wondered lowly, her eyes narrowed nearly to slits as she kneaded her temples, perhaps in an effort to jumpstart her brain. "I can't _believe_ he would agree to this!"

Aang, seated on a thin woven mat a few feet away from his girlfriend, frowned just the tiniest bit. His legs were crossed and his fists were held barely inches apart, knuckles to knuckles, tattoos outward.

The young monk's eyes were closed. He was meditating, attempting to center himself and still the whirling, turbulent thoughts and emotions going through his head and heart and gut. It was still clear, however, that he heard his girlfriend as she spoke to herself, even as he sat and meditated. He controlled his breathing, recalling the basics of his bending training.

Breath was the source of power not only for fire, but for all bending arts. Everything started with breath – without it, there was nor energy nor life. Breath was spirit. Breath was _chi_.

_Draw in the pure energies of the cosmos._ _Expel the impure energies of the body. In with the good air, out with the bad air._

Breathe in. Breathe out.

Breathe in. Breathe out.

"...I think he's just trying to do what's best for your tribe," said the young monk slowly, after a moment of thought. His voice was steady and even, almost monotone as he gradually centered himself. "He... probably sees it as his duty."

Katara bit her lip.

"I don't like it," she said. "I still don't like it. Why does it have to be like that? Why does it have to be my _brother?_ "

"Do you think Toph will hurt him?"

Katara blinked, surprised by her boyfriend's question. She frowned, then shook her head.

"No..." she said, softly at first, before more loudly, more firmly repeating herself. "No. Toph's a friend. Of course she wouldn't do anything to hurt Sokka." She paused. "But... I can't imagine she'll be very willing to go through with this. Not if her parents were telling the truth about how she reacted to finding out."

Aang was silent for a moment. He was still, serene, sitting there in a traditional Air Nomad meditation pose. He seemed to radiate peace and tranquility, and just seeing him like this helped Katara calm herself down a little more.

"Do you think it would be better if Toph refused?" he asked, after what felt like several long minutes of silence.

Katara sighed.

"I want to say yes," she said. "I really do." She shook her head. "But as much as I hate to admit it, our tribe _does_ need all the help it can get. There's still so much rebuilding we need to do, and... and this alliance with the Bei Fongs really _does_ seem like the best option."

"But you still don't like it." This wasn't a question.

"No, I don't." Her shoulders drooped, and her eyes fell. "It just goes against everything I believe in. People shouldn't be forced together like that. Not when they don't even love each other."

Aang cracked a single eye open, and he smiled at Katara. It was a small smile, more _serene_ than happy, but it nonetheless caused a similar one to take shape on his girlfriend's face.

"I guess you aren't upset with Suki, anymore?"

Katara's cheeks flushed.

"Ah... no, I guess I'm not," she conceded, sounding a little reluctant to say as much. While they had mostly resolved the tensions between them the other day, Katara had still been a little prickly towards the Kyoshi Warrior, and silently disapproving of how intimate she was with Sokka.

She shrugged.

"She really does care for him..." the waterbender mumbled, a little red-faced at saying this. "Whatever else, I can't help but feel sad for her. And Sokka. They really like each other, and they've been forced apart so many times before." She sighed. "It just seems _unfair_ , I guess. Like the Universe isn't even giving their love a chance."

Aang gave Katara a funny look.

"That almost sounds like something Sokka would say," he commented, and Katara's blush deepened.

"Well, my point still stands," she insisted. "It does seem like every time my brother falls in love with a girl, she gets taken away from him. And he and Suki have been through a _lot_ together."

"So have he and Toph," Aang pointed out, playing the role of Ozai's advocate.

Katara shook her head furiously, her blush further deepening.

"That's _different_ , though! They're just friends."

"So were we, at first."

Katara spluttered.

"Whose side are you even _on?_ "

Aang shrugged.

"I didn't realize there _were_ any sides," he said in an infuriatingly sage tone of voice.

Katara scowled.

"I think you've been spending too much time with Iroh," she muttered.

"Maybe," said Aang, but there was a grin on his face.

Katara rolled her eyes at him, but she didn't say anything more. Not for several minutes, at least. She simply sat down beside her boyfriend, allowing herself to lean against him.

Despite being shorter and – as reluctant as Katara was to admit it – _slenderer_ than his girlfriend, the young Avatar was regardless able to support her without issue. There was a deceptive strength in his youthful frame, and Katara had a feeling that he would be _very_ well built once started to fill out.

Already, she could not help absentmindedly noticing that he seemed to be an inch or two taller than he had been when they'd first met. And going along this train of thought, Katara found herself smiling a little too much at the mental image she concocted of what she and Aang might look like as adults.

And so she let herself relax like this for several minutes, soaking in the sense of tranquility which her boyfriend seemed to radiate like a tangible aura.

Eventually though, she could not stop her thoughts from turning back to the matter of her brother and Suki, and her smile wilted.

She sighed.

"Katara...?" Aang asked her, noticing the tension that seemed to be building back up in his girlfriend.

"Do you remember the village with that one fortuneteller, Aang?" she said rather suddenly, catching him off guard.

"Y-yeah," he said, blushing a little at the memory. It popped to the forefront of his mind as soon as she mentioned it, and he recalled with crystal clarity how he had... ahem... _overheard_ the old mystic telling Katara that she would marry a quote-unquote _'powerful bender'_. "Her name was Madame Wu, right?"

"Aunt Wu," Katara corrected automatically, still looking rather gloomy and morose, "but yes."

She then sighed again.

"Aang... I'm afraid she might have been the real thing," Katara murmured. "She... well, my fortune seems like it will probably come true..." She blushed beet-red, and Aang joined her.

"Is that really a bad thing...?" Aang asked her awkwardly, confusedly, his meditation by now long since broken. "I thought your fortune had been a good one?"

Katara's cheeks probably would have gone even redder if it were humanly possible.

"Oh, yes, mine was good..." she said absently, her voice a bit unusually high-pitched "But it's not me I'm worried for..."

And with a jolt, Aang recalled what had at the time seemed like a funny, completely harmless thing, something to which he had paid no mind.

"Sokka..." he breathed, remembering now the words that Madame—no, _Aunt_ Wu had said to the Water Tribe teen when he had expressed his skepticism regarding the authenticity of the village celebrity's fortunetelling abilities.

 _"Your future is full of struggle and anguish."_ That was what the old woman had said to Sokka. _"Most of it, self-inflicted."_

At the time, they had been amused by it, seeing it as the gray-haired mystic just messing around with a skeptic's head. But now, in hindsight, those words seemed to have a new, menacing weight to them.

Aang realized now why Katara looked so _worried_.

"No..." Aang said slowly. "I'm sure it's nothing. That kind of thing only has power if you believe in it. I'm sure that someone like Sokka would never let his life be ruled by what some fortuneteller said."

He placed a hand on Katara's shoulder and squeezed comfortingly.

"Besides," he continued, "I'm sure she was just messing with him because she overheard him saying he didn't believe in fortunetelling. I'm sure it didn't mean anything. Sokka's life will be good and happy and peaceful, whatever might happen. I'm sure of it."

Katara looked him in the eyes, smiling gratefully, and she drew him into a hug.

"Thanks, Aang..." she said at length, squeezing him tightly. "I'm sure you're right."

Aang smiled weakly, though Katara didn't see it, with her eyes closed and her chin on his shoulder.

He felt too much like he had lied to be entirely comfortable.

He was not half as certain as he sounded.


	20. Maikout Point

Mai _hated_ travelling by hot air balloon.

Now, to be fair, there were few things that the melancholy fléchette fanatic _didn't_ hate, but she reserved a _special_ brand of loathing for aerial travel. It was, out of all the boring things in this boring world, the singularly most mindnumbingly _boring_ of all.

There was nothing to do, so high above the ground, and furthermore the way that the balloons could be so easily swayed this way or that by the slightest breeze seriously annoyed her. It was far too whimsical for her tastes. The idea of drifting along on air currents, floating over the world in a cramped metal box that, in the event of a crash, could at most serve as a particularly spacious, burning coffin, was simply not to her fancy.

Not that Mai fancied much of anything, but that was beside the point.

She did not like travelling by balloon. There was nothing to do, nothing to see, nothing at all except boredom, boredom, _boredom_.

And she couldn't even relieve her boredom in the usual way, as the bedrooms in the repurposed airship had almost nothing in the way of soundproofing. And no matter how bored she might get, Mai wasn't the sort to experiment with exhibitionism.

Not yet, at least.

Give her a couple of years, and maybe once she and Zuko have been married for a while and things have started to cool off between them, _then_ she might consider spicing up their nightlife. And day-life. And, honestly, really just any-time-she-and-Zuko-got-randy-life.

Hey, she was bored, and he was willing. What more reason did they need? They were young and in love/lust/mutual-nonhatred.

And certainly, Mai had come to _expect_ a certain amount of regular quality time with her boyfriend every once in a while. ("Once in a while," in this instance, being defined as "whenever Mai was in the mood and they could find someplace private")

Unfortunately for Mai's _needs_ , privacy was **not** something one could easily come by on such a small zeppelin. Or at all, really.

Which was not good for the continued well-being of the people around her, because when Mai was forced to go without her daily dose of Vitamin Zuko, she got _cranky_. And a cranky Mai was a very _dangerous_ thing.

The private airship's crew of engineers could attest to this, and they had plenty of material evidence in the form of exceptionally holey clothes, and any number of cuts on their arms and legs.

(Ba Sing Se had never before seemed so far away)

Honestly, by the time the balloon _finally_ reached its destination, Mai was about as sexually frustrated as it was humanly possible to get without snapping and either going on a murderous rampage or grabbing one's respective love interest, tearing their clothes off, and making hot, angry love to them regardless of where they happened to be at that particular moment.

As it was, it _still_ took her some considerable effort of will to hold off from dragging Zuko to the nearest hotel the instant they disembarked from the zeppelin, which was set down in a very empty and remote part of the Lower Ring, practically right up against the outermost of the inner walls. It had taken no small amount of diplomacy and compromise on Zuko's part to get the the Earth King's generals to allow him to land a Fire Nation hot air balloon _anywhere_ within the walls of Ba Sing Se, and this was the furthest inside the walls that the city's leadership would allow them to land their zeppelin.

King Kuei might have been relatively willing to give Zuko the benefit of the doubt, but the Council of Five were much more stubborn.

Not that the new Fire Lord could really blame them. Not after everything that had happened between their countries during the Hundred Year War and the Occupation of Ba Sing Se. It was only natural they would be a little mistrustful, particularly when he was still so new to the throne.

Zuko simply hadn't yet had the time to firmly set himself apart from his predecessors. He had made a good start, to be sure, but there was still a LOT of work to be done yet. The world at large was still somewhat wary that he might fall down the same path as his forefathers.

And Zuko couldn't blame them for worrying.

Although Mai was certainly willing to do so.

"I can't believe they're making us walk _all the way_ to the Upper Ring," the pale, sharp-eyed young woman groused in a dull, low tone. It was early morning, yet, and the Fire Lord's girlfriend still looked half asleep.

(Though only Zuko and a couple others could really tell the difference between "sleepy Mai" and "regular Mai")

Zuko, sitting beside his girlfriend in the royal palanquin – which had been a right _pain_ to stow on the small, ten man airship – chuckled in spite of himself.

"We're not the ones doing the actual walking, though, are we?" he remarked, looking around at the curtains which were drawn closed over the sides of the ostentatious, manually borne transport. He had not particularly wanted to bring the gaudy, cumbersome thing all the way to Ba Sing Se, being quite happy to walk on his own two feet, but Mai had _insisted_ on taking it with.

He wasn't exactly just the prince, anymore, she had reminded him. As Fire Lord, he could not just go about like a commoner. He had to travel and bear himself in a manner befitting the sovereign of their great nation. It would not do, _apparently_ , for him to walk around on his own two legs when there were loyal, adoring servants ready and willing to carry his lazy ass wherever it deigned to go.

Zuko wasn't sure he entirely followed her logic, but he had conceded the point regardless. The fact that she had brought this up while wearing aught but a thin, loosely-tied silk nightgown that did an _astonishingly_ good job of flattering the young noblewoman's lithe, graceful form more than likely had something to do with it.

 _And besides_ , Zuko thought as he glanced sidelong at the fair yet sharp visage of his girlfriend, this was probably the closest he and Mai had gotten to some honest-to-ancestors _alone time_ since setting out from the capital.

Mai rolled her eyes, though this didn't stop her from pressing her lithe, slender frame a little more into Zuko's.

"It's still going to take us _forever_ to get there," she tonelessly griped. "Why couldn't they let us land in the Upper Ring? I'm sure the Avatar wouldn't have minded if we set the balloon down in his back yard, or on his roof. It was certainly spacious enough, last I saw of it."

It was probably notable that, despite Zuko's friendship with Aang, Mai wasn't exactly on a first name basis with the last airbender. She didn't put much store by _friendliness_.

Zuko shrugged. "It's a political thing," was his only response.

Mai looked almost considering for half a second.

"I see... They're making a statement, then," she shrewdly concluded. " _'You might be the Fire Lord, but that means nothing, here.'_ Or something like that. Does that sound about right?"

Zuko nodded.

"Yeah. I think that's probably as much the reason as anything," he said. "After the way Azula..." he grimaced, his face drawn and his skin looking a shade paler at the thought of his sister.

This caused his scar to stand out even more than usual, and Mai was probably one of the only people who would have been able to resist having their gaze drawn to it. As it was, however, she simply shifted her weight a little so that her boyfriend was more leaning into her than she was into him. She also casually placed a hand on her boyfriend's lap, and if gave him a short, blink-and-you'll-miss-it comforting smile.

Zuko sighed, but his expression lightened a little bit, the corners of his lips twitching ever so slightly upwards.

"...Well, after everything that happened during the War, it's only natural they'd be a little uneasy letting a Fire Nation balloon set down right in the heart of the city."

Mai nodded slowly in apparent understanding.

"I suppose so," she conceded. "I still think it's a pain, though. There's nothing to do but sit here and wait while the palanquin-bearers carry us to the Upper Ring. And that'll probably take most of the day, with how big this city is."

Zuko discreetly wrapped an arm around the slender brunette's hips, allowing a small smirk to curve his lips as he leaned in to whisper into her ear.

"Oh, I don't know if I would say _'nothing'_ ," he breathed, the words (or was it his mouth?) hot against Mai's earlobe.

"Mmm," Mai purred, a pleasant shiver running up her spine as her boyfriend light, playfully nibbled her ear. "Tell me _more._ "

Zuko did so gladly.

Mai might not have been an exhibitionist, really, but making out in the royal palanquin, she had to admit, was probably one of her new favorite things about dating the Fire Lord.

* * *

It actually did not take nearly as long to reach the Upper Ring as Mai had expected – oh, it still took several hours, and by the time they reached their destination it was quite late into the afternoon, but the palanquin-bearers had managed to keep up a remarkably good pace, only stopping every few hours to switch out with a fresh set of backs from their small entourage.

So when the Fire Lord and his girlfriend finally reached their destination, there were still several hours of daylight left, and they disembarked from the royal palanquin at no later than half past four in the evening.

...only to see a large hole in the side of the building where they had stopped.

Mai delicately raised a single, slim black eyebrow at the sight of the large, jagged rift in the walls of the Jasmine Dragon.

"Is Iroh renovating the tea shop, or did someone let loose a rabid badger-mole?" she dryly remarked, eyeing the hard to miss trail of destruction that seemed to start at the Jasmine Dragon and go up the street for at least as far as her eyes could see (and that was pretty damn far).

The smooth brick-paved road looked like it had been haphazardly ripped up by a small army of earthbenders. Long, jagged gashes carved up the surface of the street, looking like they had been gouged out by the claws of some great, massive beast, and the roadside was littered with shattered boulders and rude, blunt spires of rock like the worn, battered teeth of a living mountain stuck out here and there everywhere at odd angles. Many of the houses and storefronts nearby looked to have also been the victims of some collateral damage, chunks of stone stabbing into walls here and there.

Frankly, it had all the appearance of a war zone, and judging by the presence of the earthbenders dressed in the garb of blue-collar civil servants who looked to be in the process of repairing the damage that had been done, it had probably been even worse before they got here.

"...I'm not sure I _want_ to know..." muttered Zuko morosely, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach as he found himself recognizing certain familiar aspects in the pattern of destruction that carved its way up the street and out of sight. He had seen enough earthbending over the years to notice the differences in the ways different styles produced different results.

Looking at the boulders and spires and pits and troughs, Zuko felt like he might as well have been looking at the portrait of a certain blind earthbender. Fortunately for the sake of his mental health and stress levels, before he could ruminate more on the implications of this, or further ponder what might have caused it, the young Fire Lord heard a very familiar voice calling his name.

"Ah, Zuko!" came Iroh's voice, and the scarred firebender turned to see his aged uncle walking towards him and Mai – not from the Jasmine Dragon, but coming down the street from where the trail of destruction led. "I was not expecting you so soon. And lovely Mai, as well!"

The man was smiling broadly at the two of them as he approached, easily and effortlessly sidestepping the various hazards and obstacles which littered the road.

"Uncle!" said Zuko, and there was a rare sort of smile on his face as he went up to greet the man who had practically been like a second father to him (and certainly a better one than Ozai had been).

The Dragon of the West was soon and shortly pulled into a tight and rather undignified hug by his nephew, but the retired general did not mind. He was just as happy to see Zuko as Zuko was to see him, and Iroh did not begrudge the lad this show of affection, no matter how inappropriate his brother or father might have considered such behavior to be for the Fire Lord.

Propriety, as far as Iroh was concerned, was for people who were _not_ family.

"It is good to see you, too, Nephew!" said the stout old man with a cheerful belly laugh. "I have missed having you around."

Zuko smiled.

"Yeah," he agreed, hugging his uncle even tighter. "Me too."

Unfortunately for their tearful reunion, Mai chose that moment to interject.

"Not to interrupt your hug fest, or anything," said the young woman, her voice getting Iroh and Zuko's attention, "but what _happened_ here?"

She lazily gestured with one hand to indicate the scenic tableau of property damage and roadway vandalism which surrounded them.

Zuko blinked, unconsciously letting go of his uncle. He looked as though he had almost for a moment _forgotten_ about the sight of destruction that had welcomed them.

Iroh, for his part, looked almost sheepish for half a second, before he too let go of his nephew and took a step back.

"Ah..." he said, looking maybe just a little bit shifty-eyed for a moment. "Yes. _That_."

He forced a cough into a closed fist, clearing his throat as he started walking in the direction of his tea shop.

"Well... Come with me, then," he said, gesturing for the young Fire Lord and noblewoman to both follow him. "Let us go inside my shop, where the two of can sit down and get comfortable. I will prepare a pot of tea, and then I will then tell you the story, or at least as much of it as I can. It is not the longest tale, perhaps, but is still one better heard in comfort."

Zuko grimaced.

"We'll want to sit down for this, won't we."

It was not a question, so Iroh did not answer.

Even Mai couldn't help feeling a little apprehensive. Somehow, she had a feeling that things were about to get _very complicated_.

She just hoped it would be for someone else.


	21. Daisuki Yo

In this world, there are times and places where the paths of multiple people will cross and intersect. The fates of many can, in these instances, become tightly wound specifically into the fates of a very few.

These times, these occasions, when the doom of multitudes can rest on something so small as a butterfly's wings, or a spoiled egg, are as cornerstones in the vast, intricate masonry of fate. From these moments, these instances, are built up the histories and futures of entire _nations_. If they go in a bad way, entire civilizations, whole _ages_ of human history, can be toppled into chaos or oblivion.

These times, these places, these _crossroads of destiny_ , are as lynchpins in a vast, cosmic clockwork. The doom of nations can turn upon the axle of the briefest moments, the smallest, most seemingly insignificant decisions. Something as simple as a single person stopping at a specific diner for a sandwich can lead to a cascade of events resulting in two of the largest, bloodiest wars in recorded history.

And indeed, so often these important events will so seem so innocuous, at first. Such as was the case with a certain teenager and his girlfriend stopping off to visit his uncle on the way to a party.

Of course, the teenager and girlfriend, in this case, were the Fire Lord, Zuko, and the noblewoman, Mai – the latter of whom had betrayed the Princess Azula to protect her love, catalyzing the firebending prodigy's descent into madness and ultimate deposal from the throne. Additionally, the teenager's uncle was the Dragon of the West, Grandmaster of the Order of the White Lotus, the famed, retired General Iroh, and the party in question was the Harvest Festival, in the court of the Earth King himself.

But the original point still stands.

Now, the reason that Zuko stopping to see his uncle was so important is a rather complicated tale in and of itself, but essentially it can be summed up as such: If Zuko had foregone or postponed the visit in favor of doing anything else, he and Mai would not have heard the account of certain recent events at the specific time that would result, when they went off to see their friends (well, when _Zuko_ went off to see _his_ friends) about said events, in them arriving at the house of the Avatar at the same time as a certain blind earthbender was also arriving, and furthermore just as a certain commander of the Kyoshi Warriors was leaving.

If Mai and Zuko had not been there at that time, Suki would have left for her home – the distant, remote village of Kyoshi Island – then and there, disheartened and dismayed, but ultimately accepting of her fate. Toph would not have stopped her. Maybe under other circumstances, but not these, not then. Not like that.

Suki would have left, and Toph would have gone inside and announced her intentions to go through with the marriage to everyone present. Things would have gone fairly predictably from there, and Toph and Sokka would have ultimately gotten married. Not the most mutually-loving couple, perhaps, but they could have found some measure of happiness with their fate.

Suki would have also moved on, herself, ultimately, though she would always regret the loss of her first real love.

But, as it was, Mai and Zuko WERE there _._ And when the Fire Lord saw the Kyoshi Warrior leaving the Gaang's house, when he saw the melancholy – almost _resigned_ – expression on her face, he did what only came natural to him.

"I take it you heard about the arranged marriage, then?" Zuko blurted out as Suki was walking past him.

The Kyoshi Warrior blinked, and she stopped in her tracks. Slowly, pivoting stiffly on her heels, she turned to face Zuko. She stared at him for several seconds with a seemingly blank, unreadable expression, lips tightly drawn and cheeks faintly pale.

Then she slapped him. _Hard._

Zuko, reeling back from the blow, just narrowly missed bowling over a determined-looking Toph as he staggered away from Suki. The young earthbender, noticing this, and recognizing the footsteps of the people beside her, snapped out of her single-minded, girl-on-a-mission sort of trance.

"Zuko?!" she said, surprised to quote-unquote 'see' the Fire Lord here, at this moment in time. "What are you doing here?" she asked him.

"Making an ass of himself, apparently," drawled Mai, eyeing Suki with just the faintest hint of hooded malice in her eyes.

("Touch my boyfriend again, I _DARE_ you," her look seemed to say, her sleeves appearing almost to subtly bristle with the threat of hidden steel)

Suki blinked. She was silent, looking faintly shocked as she glanced down at her own hand, as though unable to comprehend what it had done.

"Oh, _Kyoshi_ ," she breathed, and she looked as though that was the first breath she had either taken or released for several long minutes, going by the way she seemed to deflate, shoulders slumping. "I..." she murmured, looking put out as gazed at the mark she had left on the Fire Lord's face. "I'm _so sorry_ , Zuko! I didn't mean to—"

"No, don't worry about it," said Zuko, sounding slightly out of it as he rubbed the bright, splotchy red palm-shaped mark on the scar-free side of his face, "It's okay. I probably deserved that."

Off to the side, Toph looked a little uncertain as she listened to the events unfolding. She seemed almost rooted to the spot, yet at the same time her frame occasionally jerked away from the group and toward the house, as though she were making to once more begin walking in that direction, only to be cut off by some internal obstacle or stumbling block.

The girl was frowning, something almost like a scowl on her face. She seemed to be at war with herself, or nearly so, looking veritably conflicted. Whatever schism she was experiencing within, the others were not privy to it, and if Zuko or Suki noticed, they did not say.

"No, no," the Kyoshi Warrior said softly, glancing sidelong at Mai – almost appearing to be asking permission for something, or else forgiveness. "I shouldn't have hit you," she admitted, shaking her head.

For a second it looked like she was about to raise a hand to Zuko's cheek – perhaps in an attempt to alleviate the pain he was no doubt feeling at that moment – but then she jerked the appendage back with a weak grimace, and she averted her gaze.

"I'm sorry," she said. It didn't sound like she was speaking to Zuko at this point. Her eyes were staring off into the distance.

She looked, at that moment, to be so profoundly _sad_ and _vulnerable_ , nothing like the strong, capable young woman whom Zuko had seen unhesitatingly rush the guards at the Boiling Rock whilst armed with nothing but her own two hands and feet.

He looked over at his girlfriend, Mai, a lost, almost _pleading_ expression on his face.

Mai sighed, rolling her eyes at how hopeless her boyfriend was.

"Quit moping," she said bluntly, with a precisely schooled expression that was halfway between boredom and annoyance. "It's _annoying_."

Suki chuckled weakly at this, absentmindedly brushing a lock of auburn hair out of her face as she turned a wan smile on the young noblewoman.

"You're right..." she said softly. "I've already accepted it. I _know_ it needs to be done." She shook her head. "There's no point wallowing in regret, right? He has his duty, and I have mine..."

Toph's expression seemed to grow pained at this, though the others were not paying her any mind at that moment.

Zuko frowned, though, and he again glanced over at Mai, but she glowered at him and shook her head.

 _She's your friend, not mine_ , her expression seemed to say. _Deal with it yourself._

So Zuko turned back to Suki, and he forced a smile onto his face. It was painfully, _obviously_ fake, but she could tell that the sentiment, at least, was sincere.

"But it's still hard for you to accept, right?" he ventured a guess, looking completely out of his depth as he tried to comfort the Kyoshi Warrior. "If you really loved him, then of course you'd have trouble letting him go."

Even as the words left his mouth, he knew that he had said the wrong thing, and he winced immediately, as though half-expecting another slap.

Instead, Suki's shoulders slumped, and she let out a sigh.

 _If you REALLY loved him._ Honestly, that was probably about the worst thing he could have said, while still trying to cheer her up. Those words rang painfully in the Kyoshi native's ears, aggrieving her like an arrow through the heart.

"Maybe you're right..." she said, sighing sadly.

Zuko once more desperately shot a look at Mai, but the dark-haired young woman simply shrugged. With a grimace, turning his attention again back to Suki, the firebending swordsman furiously backpedaled.

"No, no, no!" he exclaimed. "I didn't mean it like that! Of course you still love him: that's obviously why you're having trouble accepting this!"

This did not seem to cheer her up, however. If anything, it only further deepened her malaise.

"I think Kyoshi was probably right, to forbid the founders of my order from marriage," the girl whispered, more to herself than to those around her. She was unable to look Zuko or the others in the eye as she spoke. "I mean, look at me... I'm supposed to be the commander of our order, the inheritor of Avatar Kyoshi's will, yet I'm acting so _pathetic_."

She swore.

"Maybe it would be better if I _didn't_ love him..." she muttered. "At least then I would not be so weak. At least then I wouldn't _hurt_ so much at the thought of letting him go."

That was when Mai, for the second time, interjected to interrupt Suki's pity party.

"What a _completely idiotic_ way of looking at things," said the young woman snidely, but there was an uncharacteristic amount of force behind her words, and her eyes seemed to flash as she spoke. "Love doesn't make you weak."

Suki looked up at Mai, surprise evident in her expression.

"Huh...?"

"Love hurts," said Mai. " _Big deal_. Just because it leaves you in pain, that doesn't mean it's bad for you. I'd think that a _warrior_ of all people should know this," she remarked derisively, condescendingly.

Yet when Suki looked into her eyes, she saw one of the last things she would have ever expected from the young weapons mistress.

_Sympathy. Understanding._ **_Camaraderie._ **

"I..." Suki murmured, uncertain how to take this. "I don't..."

"No," said Mai. "Listen. Lift your chin, stand up straight, and _quit being a baby._ You love him, don't you?"

Suki sighed.

" _Yes_ ," she said, and there was so much emotion, so much _passion_ conveyed in that one simple word that Toph, who was still off to the side, listening, frozen in place with an almost morbid fascination, suddenly looked incredibly guilty. Yet, after a moment, the young woman added, "...but..."

"No," Mai interjected again, stepping forward and grabbing the Kyoshi Warrior by the arm. "No buts. Either you love him, or you don't. There's no in between."

Her golden eyes smoldered with a frightening intensity as she stared straight into Suki's... brown? gray? ... _blue?_

Mai shook her head internally. Now was not the time to bother with something like that.

(Though she seriously _did_ wonder what color the girl's eyes were supposed to be)

Suki sighed, her (brown? gray? blue?) eyes downcast.

"I _do_ love him..." She shook her head. "...I'm not the only one, however..."

She looked askance at Toph, and Zuko and Mai followed her gaze. The earthbender's ears turned bright red, and she hardly even needed her earthbending to feel they way they shifted their weight and swiveled their heads to face in her direction. She could practically feel their eyes upon her like a physical pressure against her skin, and a prickling sensation at the base of her spine.

Toph blushed. _Heavily._

Mai blinked. Zuko sighed.

" _Seriously?_ " said the former, apparently finding it hard to believe what she had just heard.

The latter seemed less surprised though. Certainly, not so much so as he was simply weary, _e_ _xasperated._ _  
_

"You don't actually plan to go _through_ with this, do you, Toph?" he asked weakly, before groaning when he saw the blush on Toph's face go full-on flourescent.

"It's my own decision," the girl said. Her voice wavered a little, but still they could hear a certain conviction in it. "I'm done running away."

That was all she said, but those few words conveyed a world of emotion, and meaning.

Suki smiled sadly.

" _'Some of use prefer to actually go and take what we want, rather than sit around and mope all day about not getting it handed to us on silver platter'_..." she whispered, recalling her own words back at the Jasmine Dragon, what seemed like a lifetime ago.

Toph gave the older girl a wan smile.

"Yeah... Sorry it had to be like this, but I guess I've decided to take your advice," she said. "And Iroh's, too."

Zuko sighed.

"He's the one who convinced you to go through with this, isn't he?" grumbled he, feeling a headache coming on. It had been a while since he'd felt so frustrated with his uncle.

Toph shrugged, not needing to say a word.

Mai quirked an eyebrow at this.

Zuko resisted the urge to facepalm.

"That's a pretty big detail to omit," drawled the former.

"Not for Uncle Iroh," sighed Zuko in exasperation.

He loved the old man, he really did, but sometimes he felt like just he could strangle him for always being so blasted _close_ (in the sense that he rarely divulged all of what he was thinking, and kept many secrets close to his chest).

A long moment of silence followed between the four of them.

"...I should probably go inside," said Toph at length, after a long pause.

Suki looked at Toph, and smiled sadly.

"Right," she said, "And I'll suppose I'll go—"

"— _with_ me," Toph interjected, surprising Suki. There was a deep crimson flush, still, to the young bender's cheeks, and she was holding out a hand, as if to gesture for Suki to follow her. "I like Sokka, but I like _you_ , too."

For some reason, Toph's blush seemed to deepen at this, and Suki felt a bit of warmth in her own cheeks, which was certainly curious.

Softly, the Kyoshi Warrior smiled and took Toph's hand, which felt disconcertingly _small_ inside her own.

"Same here," she said warmly, almost surprisingly so. Her expression seemed to lighten, no longer so morose as she gently squeezed the blind lass's hand. "We'll figure this out _together_. Us and Sokka."

"Yeah," said Toph in apparent agreement, grinning unusually brightly as she tugged on the older girl's arm and began leading her back towards the house. "The three of us against the world."

Suki giggled, and off they went, into the house.

Zuko stared blankly after them.

" _What just happened?_ "

Mai was too busy fighting her gag reflex to respond.

* * *


	22. The Art of Swords, Zen, and Tsundere

Sokka felt inordinately weary as he went through the motions of various sword kata. He felt profoundly _drained_ as he gripped the hilt of his heavy, arm-length waster, thrusting and slicing with a fluid, feline grace as he practiced his forms.

Alone danced he across the yard, his feet describing a path of bloodshed and combat through an invisible horde. He moved his weapon in efficient foining and sweeping blows, shifting his weight ever in constant movement – no more than he needed to, but no less, either.

Smoothly, like a well oiled machine, his arms and legs and torso and head moved all together, every bodily member fulfilling some role or other at any given moment. His body and sword moved in perfect harmony. Each was merely an extension of the other. In perfect concert his members flowed from form to form: lean, hard, steadily-building muscles coiling and rippling and tensing and loosing in a kinetic symphony of war and peace.

He was art in motion, as he trained, as he allowed himself to simply become lost in the movements of his wooden blade.

Even as drained, as _weary_ as he was, all exhaustion, all stress seemed to fall from him as he become one with the sword. This was more than just a way of fighting, more than just a means of dealing injury and death. It was a kind of meditation, an expression of the soul upon the world, a veritable religious experience.

To fight with the sword, one had to focus all of their attention on the sword, had to live in the moment and shut out all else as they handled their blade. To allow one's focus to stray could prove fatal, when handling an implement as simply, sublimely lethal as this.

It was zen. To truly handle the sword as a master, one had to forget completely all memories of the past, block off entirely all thoughts of the future. When the sword was in your hand, there was only the present, only _this moment_. You had to focus your entire being on your sword, the grand sum total of your intellect and experience and strength and _chi_.

The sword was all. There was nothing but the sword. There had never been anything but the sword. There would never be anything but the sword.

The sword was life, that which safeguarded the body and its vital members. The sword was death, that which cut down all enemies and laid low all threats.

The sword was Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. It was light and dark, push and pull, yin and yang.

The sword was _all_.

Sokka grunted in satisfaction as he felt his limbs slowly, gradually lighten. Worry and stress and dread and regret had lain heavy upon his shoulders, and his members had felt slow and leaden in their movements. But the exercise he did now, the training into which he threw himself, served as a distraction from his anxieties, and his misgivings.

The kata he now went through brought living warmth to limbs which had before felt so deathly cold, and the pain of exertion in his arms and legs and back and shoulders was as a soothing balm to his soul. The forms he now practiced brought solace to his troubled mind, a bittersweet nepenthe of blood and sweat which washed away troubles and fears and worries all with a burning as hot as wine down one's throat.

Sokka was alone as he trained himself, or so he believed, and there were none to see him strive and struggle and persevere through every step and stroke of the intricate, advanced forms to which he tasked himself with the goal of mastery and escape. He did not train, now, to impress any others, or to show off his prowess. He did not flow with the sword in the sweet warmth of motion for the benefit of another. He did not lose himself in the blade and the blood and the steel to prove himself to anyone.

He trained for himself, not for his friends, not for his family, not even for his master. He held the blade in his hands, and there was only him, only the sword, only the enemy right before him and the battlefield about him.

Except there were no enemies, unless the ones which dwelt solely in the darkest, most hidden recesses of his minds and dreams. And there was no battlefield, unless all of life should be accounted as war, and all the world its theater.

He was alone. There was only Sokka and the sword. The sword and Sokka.

Or so he thought.

At least.

Until he heard it.

" _Beautiful_..."

Was the word breathed in the distance, in a voice painfully familiar to Sokka, one which brought up pangs in his heart, pain unwanted, a loss which he had been attempting so hard to bury.

"Yeah..." came another voice, and this was also one which pained him, for reasons related yet different to the first.

"Not bad," said a third voice, low and gravelly, and somewhat toneless, yet also unmistakably feminine. To this one his heart had no attachment, his mind owed no sorrow, and so Sokka Hakoda's son felt his cheeks grow warm, his face glow red.

Distracted, feeling himself blushing from this praise, praise unasked for and, more importantly, praise given not from one who made him feel the pain of sorrow or loss just with the sound of her voice.

Flustered, Sokka stumbled, missing a step in his forms. His face red, he tripped over his own feet, pitching forward and landing face-first on the ground.

With a sharp pain in his forehead, he saw stars, and then nothing.

* * *

When Sokka woke back up, it was to find Zuko, of all people, leaning over him. He was laying on his back, the sky overhead.

"You okay, buddy?" the Fire Lord asked.

Sokka grunted, clutching a hand to his forehead with a pained groan.

" _Slush,_ " the young tribesman cursed through grit teeth, recalling all at once how he had come to lose consciousness in the first place. " _Please_ tell me the girls didn't see that."

"Bei Fong didn't, at least," came the dry, laconic wit of Zuko's girlfriend.

Sokka didn't know what the Fire Lord saw in the girl, although he supposed that she _was_ at least _kinda_ pretty, in the right light – not that he went for that sort of look, himself.

Toph sniggered from somewhere out of sight (Sokka was a little too stiff and sore at the moment to turn his head to look for her).

"All hail Snoozles, Lord of the Pratfall!" she teased, but her tone was warm – perhaps a bit suspiciously so, given the circumstances.

And then Sokka heard Suki giggle, the sound clear and beautiful, like the tinkling of silver wind chimes, soft and girlish and gay. He felt his face grow red in spite of himself.

"Hey, Suki," he said, greeting his technically-kind-of-an-ex-now girlfriend. "Hey, Toph," he added a second later nodding slightly in the direction he had heard his friend's voice coming from. His neck was already feeling a bit less stiff now as he did so, and he risked trying to sit up. He felt his back groan a bit in protest at this sudden movement, but otherwise he was able to attain a seated position without overmuch difficulty.

He glanced around, seeing that he was still in the yard, where he had been practicing his sword forms. It didn't look like had been out for too long, judging from the sun's position in the sky – certainly, at least, it couldn't have been more than five, maybe ten minutes.

He eyed the people present around him.

Zuko had been kneeling over him when he first awoke, but now the Fire Lord had moved back a few feet, and was sitting next to his girlfriend. Mai, in turn, appeared to be eyeing Sokka boredly – and the Water Tribe teen felt his cheeks heat up under her piercing gaze, suddenly feeling a little self conscious about the fact that he had been training shirtless.

Suki, meanwhile, was off to one side, sitting not far from Toph, who was herself resting her back against a boulder that Sokka was fairly certain hadn't been there he'd passed out. The former was smiling at him, looking glad to see that he was okay.

(And Sokka was glad to see that she was glad)

"What'd I miss?" he asked his assembled friends, a gormless grin forming on his face. He was consciously focusing his gaze more in Zuko's (and Mai's) direction, a mite too conscious of how complicated things had recently gotten between himself and the other two.

(He tried not to think too hard about how the relationship dynamics between him and Suki and Toph would be forced to change by recent events, and he also hoped that the earthbender would not take out her frustrations with her parents on _him_ )

Zuko snorted, a rather undignified sound to be coming from the leader of an entire nation.

"Well," said the marginally older teen, the faintest note of sarcasm in his voice, "Suki was about to leave for Kyoshi Island when Mai and I arrived, and apparently Toph has decided to go through with the marriage."

Sokka blinked.

There were three major pieces of information to be gotten from that statement. The first, he already knew – he had _been there_ when Suki had made her decision to leave... except she was still here, and she did not look like she had any intentions of moving from that spot. Maybe she wasn't leaving after all?

(...Sokka probably should not have felt so hopeful at this thought)

The last two details, however, were new to him. The first, being that Toph was going to go through with the marriage – _why would she do that?_ he asked himself, but somewhere in his subconscious, he got the strange feeling that he should _know_ the reason, that he _did_ know the reason, but simply refused to accept it. And the second was that Zuko and Mai apparently knew about the arranged marriage.

This was the detail his brain chose to latch onto, it being the relatively most innocuous.

"How long did you two know?" he asked Zuko, Mai, and his voice most certainly did NOT crack. Also his tone was _perfectly_ masculine, and not at ALL high-pitched.

"We just found out about it today," replied the Fire Lord, a sheepish look on his face, shrugging with his palms face up in an almost _apologetic_ fashion. "We heard it from Uncle Iroh."

Mai did not deign to add anything to this, simply fiddling uninterestedly with one of her many ever-present throwing knives.

"Ah," said Sokka, and he nodded silently, understanding writ on his face.

He fell quiet for a minute or two, obviously still curious about the other big revelations, but fearing to broach the subject. It was too awkward, he thought, too strange, too surreal.

Why couldn't things ever be simple?

But he sighed, at length, glancing sidelong at Toph, and Suki. He frowned just the tiniest bit.

"I... can't believe you're actually willing to go through with this," he confessed to the former, eyeing her curiously, as though it was his first time really _seeing_ her.

Toph blushed, her cheeks dusted a light shade of pink (and Sokka was surprised to realize that the young girl could actually look _cute_ ).

"Don't read anything into it, Meathead," she said brusquely, crossing her arms over her chest. Yet her blush only grew deeper as she spoke, and if Sokka didn't know better, he would almost think that Toph was _intentionally_ facing her head away from him. "I-it's not like I _like_ you, or anything," she stammered out, and her words sounded the tiniest bit forced.

Suki looked _this_ close to gushing and fawning over the way Toph was acting, and the look in her eyes all but screamed ' _eeee too_ _cuuuute~!_ ' Zuko also seemed a little taken aback at how Toph was talking, and even Sokka felt his cheeks warm a little in a mixture of confusion and something else. Mai was the only one to appear wholly unaffected.

"O-of course not," said Sokka, finding that the words came out unusually weakly, and why was his face getting so hot? "It's just political, is all... My tribe needs this, I can't afford to refuse..."

"Same here," said Toph, and her voice was coming out as more of a squeak than anything else. "E-even if I refused to go through with this, my parents wouldn't give up. They'd keep pushing until I finally married someone. And," — her blush, at this point, could have glowed in the dark — "it's not like being married to you would be _too_ awful," she murmured softly, almost everything about the way she was talking just seeming to be one hundred percent uncharacteristic for the willful Blind Bandit. "Y-you're probably one of the best options I'll get, as far as people my parents would pick for me to marry... At least, you aren't some fat, dirty old merchant."

She said this last part with a weak, kind of forced laugh.

Sokka felt unsure how to take what Toph was saying, though he was certainly blushing hard enough. He wasn't sure _why_ Toph's words were eliciting this reaction from him – and why was Suki just sitting there and _smiling_ at the two of them? It was making him feel weird.

Not exactly a _bad_ weird, mind you, but it was still vaguely uncomfortable. And this was not a nice time for him to be outside his comfort zone. He wanted things to make _sense_.

And this didn't.

...or at least, not that he was willing to admit.

( _since when could toph be so CUTE?_ )


	23. Values Dissonance

Sokka had always known that Toph was a girl. He was no fool, whatever anyone else might say. He may have frequently forgotten that she was _blind_ , but not once did he ever forget that she was a female.

He had just never seen why it _mattered._

Contrary to what many might think, from first impressions early on, Sokka was not really a sexist. Not anymore, at least. He was an intelligent person. He was perfectly able and willing to realize and acknowledge when he was wrong, and adjust his worldview accordingly.

Why, before meeting Aang and traveling all over the world with the young Avatar, back during the War (and it still really _struck him_ now and again that it was actually finally _over_ ), he had hardly even believed in spirits, or the old stories Gran-Gran had used to tell him and his sister when they were little.

Sokk had always been a fairly practical, pragmatic sort, the kind of person who based their worldview on what they could see, what they could perceive with their senses. Before traveling with Aang, he had never seen a spirit, never had any reason to believe they even existed _at all_ , aside from the word of his Gran-Gran and the old stories of their people. And as spirits, before then, had never had any tangible, observable, _provable_ effect on his life, he had not cared about them, had hardly put any stock in the old myths and legends.

Katara might have eaten that kind of thing right up, back when they were kids, but Sokka had always been a more skeptical sort of person.

With that said, however, after traveling with Aang, Sokka had gained a considerably greater appreciation for the _reality_ of spirits, and magic, and junk like that. Hell, he had actually been _spirited away_ once, by the Hei-Bai, and his old girlfriend was now the _moon_.

And that's not even getting into his encounter with Wan Shi Tong, and the whole Spirit Library thing.

Honestly, after all of that, Sokka was just much more accepting of the idea of spirits. And in the same vein, while he had once been of the belief that men and women each had specific, written-in-stone roles, and that women could never be as good of warriors as _men_ , this had not been something he had clung to irrationally out of some misguided sense of male chauvinism.

No, this idea, this notion, had been a part of his worldview as a child, growing up in the South Pole where the only warriors and hunters were the men, and the women had their own jobs to take care of. He had, back then, believed that men were naturally stronger than women quite simply because, until he met Aang at the age of fifteen, the only women he had known had been Gran-Gran and the other tribeswomen, all mothers or homemakers, and Katara.

Sokka had always been one to base his worldview on empirical evidence. And back then, all of his experience had pointed to men being stronger, men being natural warriors. _Now_ , of course, he knew that the data had simply been skewed by the small sample size he had to work with as a child, but back then he had not yet been given any reason to question this belief. Not even by Katara.

 _Especially_ not by Katara.

Oh, Sokka knew his sister would probably have his hide if she ever heard him say it out loud, but back before they met Aang, before they left to find him and Katara a waterbending master in the North Pole, his sister had been, quite frankly, _weaker than him_ , and he had found it very difficult to take her rants about equality and _women can be just as strong as men_ seriously when Katara herself had been, in all honesty, _weak_ , and really incapable of contributing to the tribe's survival as a hunter or warrior.

It was a strange notion to contemplate now, with Katara being recognized as one of the greatest waterbenders alive – an honest-to-Yue _prodigy_ , who had, after just a short period of formal instruction, risen to a level of skill great enough to be entrusted with valuable scrolls of the Northern Water Tribe's bending techniques, and more importantly the continued education of the Avatar himself – but back when it was just them in the South Pole, Katara's only contribution to the survival of the tribe had been to do what Sokka, back then, would have termed "woman's work".

He had been the one who went hunting out on the ice, staying out for days at a time, on occasions, before finally returning to the village with a kill in tow. Katara had not been strong enough to heft a spear, nor club a down tiger seal in a killing blow. She had never learned how to use a boomerang, how to track prey across the endless white tundra, how to pick out at a glance the weakest, most vulnerable members of a herd or pack, or how to isolate those sickly, young, or elderly specimens from the rest of the group and pick them off alone.

She had, quite simply, not been a hunter. And, back then, when she got on Sokka's case about leaving all his laundry to her, or making some stupid, sexist remark, he could not help but scorn her a little, in the back of his mind. As far as he had been concerned, back in those days, Katara had been full of herself, had wasted too much of her time playing with magic water and dreaming of far off lands and great adventures.

Katara had not been strong. She had not been a warrior. In all honesty, before leaving the South Pole, Katara's waterbending had been _entirely_ self-taught, without even any waterbending scrolls to work from. She hadn't even known that _the moon was the source of waterbending_ , for ocean's sake! That was just how fragmentary and incomplete his sister's understanding of the art had been.

So, naturally, even with as talented as she eventually proved herself to be, there was only so much Katara could have done just by teaching herself. Without any documentation to work from, or elder benders to study under, or even anybody who could show her what the proper forms _looked like_ , Katara had had to essentially develop her waterbending through trial and error, try to build up an entire martial style from scratch.

Even Sokka himself had been better off, in teaching himself how to fight, because he was at least able to draw from vague childhood memories of watching the men of the tribe train and hunt and fend off raiders. Until reaching the North Pole, Katara had never before even _seen_ another waterbender.

So even with as much as her brother's abilities as a warrior had languished and stagnated and poorly developed, without senior warriors to show him the ropes and correct him when he made a mistake, Katara's abilities as a bender had suffered even more.

Quite frankly, until they met Aang and began traveling the world, Katara had been weaker than Sokka. And until they met the Kyoshi warriors, Sokka had not been given any reason to doubt his preconceived notions as to the natural order of things.

Until Suki had made a fool of him, and forced Sokka to reevaluate his worldview. And thinking of Suki brought Sokka back to the matter of Toph.

"This is getting _complicated_ ," he heard himself mutter quietly under his breath, more to himself than any of the people seated around him, in the shade of an impromptu earth tent erected courtesy of the Blind Bandit. "Toph's decided to go through with this, but she also doesn't want to alienate Suki? Gah, how is that supposed to work?"

Sokka shook his head.

"I'm surprised, though," he said more loudly, so the others could hear. In particular, he was speaking in Suki's direction. "You're talking about wanting to make our relationship work, yet you also don't want me to try and call off the marriage?"

"Of course," replied the auburn-haired young woman with a shrug. "I couldn't make you do that. Your tribe _needs_ this, after everything that happened to it during the war."

Zuko visibly flinched.

"Oh, get over it, Zuko," Mai said to her boyfriend, rolling her eyes at the way he seemed to take every little reminder of the Fire Nation's crimes so personally. And not even in a funny, murderous rage sort of way, either – it was just downright _depressing_ , and that was saying a LOT, coming from _her_. "I mean, it's not like you _personally_ raided the South Pole or anything."

Zuko's face turned a rather interesting shade of puce.

Mai blinked.

"Oh yeah," she said, her tone bland. "I forgot about that."

She did not sound even remotely sheepish. Zuko looked like he was about to say something, but he was interrupted before he could get any words out of his mouth.

"Wait," interjected Toph's voice, "Back up. What's this about Sokka's tribe _needing_ him to marry me?"

(If anybody noticed that she used his actual name, and not any sort of nick, well, they didn't show it)

Sokka blinked.

"What? I thought you knew," he said, looking slightly perplexed, eyeing the young chit somewhat curiously. "If the two of us get married, that will mean an alliance between the Bei Fongs and the Southern Water Tribe. With the help of your family's assets and trade agreements, my tribe would be able to rebuild a lot more easily. That kind of influence would go a very long way towards restoring the South Pole to the way it used to be, before the war. Didn't you know that?" he inquired. "I thought that was why you decided to go through with the marriage...?"

The questioning tone in which he said the last sentence caused Toph's cheeks to pinken, and she seemed to tense a little.

"Oh! Yeah!" she said, her voice sounding unnaturally high pitched. " _That!_ Yes, that was why!" She laughed, but it was rather forced-sounding, a little nervous, even. "Ha! ha! ha!"

Sokka cocked an eyebrow curiously, but he did not say anything. He noticed the way Suki was smirking at Toph, a rather knowing expression on her face.

He would rather not think too hard about why that was.

Shaking his head, he decided to get to the original point of what he was saying.

"Still, though. I'm a little confused, Suki," said the Water Tribe teen, changing the topic for the benefit of everyone present. "The way you're talking... well, I'm not sure how I'm supposed to take it." His face reddened. "It... er, almost sounds like you _want_ me to get together with Toph, yet you still want to keep what we have going...? Uh..."

He scratched the back of his neck. He looked sheepish, a little anxious, and he seemed to be having the tiniest bit of difficulty meeting the bright hazel eyes of his he-really-wasn't-sure-what-to-call-what-they-had-a nymore.

"Eh... I hope you don't take this the wrong way Suki," continued Sokka, "but shouldn't you be a little less... ah, _accepting_ of something like that? I didn't think polygamy was really... _practiced_ in the Earth Kingdom..."

Zuko frowned, confused, and Mai also looked maybe just the slightest bit lost, if you knew her expressions well enough. Suki, though, turned a bright, fluorescent pink.

"Eep! No!" she said anxiously, appearing flustered at Sokka's remark. But then, fighting to regain some of her composure, she added, "Er, not as such, no," in a slightly calmer tone. She still looked a bit embarrassed though. "And, besides, Kyoshi Warriors can't get married, anyway."

Mai's eyebrows nearly rose into her hairline at this, though she looked a tad more amused than outright astonished.

"Does _Ty Lee_ know this?" she wondered. "I can't imagine she would like that very much..." she murmured, before almost _frowning_ as she added. "But, what does this... what did you call it? Polygony? What does that have to do with marriage?"

Suki gave Mai a weird look.

"Of course she knows. It's the first of the vows a prospective Kyoshi Warrior is expected to take before they can be accepted into the order," she said. "' _And thus, for love of mine home, I shall wed myself unto Kyoshi, and serve her most faithfully until at last I be returned to the Earth. All other vows forswear I, who lovest Kyoshi so above all else, and none other shall claim my hand as theirs but Kyoshi.'_ "

She said this fluidly, firmly, as though quoting from heart a passage of holy scripture.

Zuko blanched at this, and even Mai looked a little perturbed.

"You're married to the _Avatar?_ " said the former in disbelief.

"What? No, of course not!" Suki responded. "By 'Kyoshi', we don't simply mean the Avatar, or the woman. We mean the ideals for which she stood, the people she fought to protect, she island she split off from the mainland," she explained. "All of those things are _'Kyoshi'_ , and _that_ is what we Kyoshi warriors marry ourselves to."

"Ugh," Mai muttered. "Marrying an _ideal?_ You Earth Kingdom people are _crazy_ ," she said ignoring Toph and Suki's twin cries of _"Hey! Don't lump us sensible folk in with those loony mainlanders/backwards island-dwellers!"_

Zuko sighed slightly, and he shook his head.

"That still doesn't explain what geometry has to do with marriage," said he, curiously turning his gaze on Sokka.

The teenage tribesman blinked.

"Geome...? _No!_ " he exclaimed in exasperation. "It's _polygamy_ , not math. Po-ly-ga-my _,_ " he carefully, clearly enunciated. "You know? When a guy takes more than one wife. (Or when a girl takes more than one husband, as Katara always used to insist)."

Zuko frowned.

"Do you mean, like, concubines?" he asked, face a bit red. "I didn't think the Water Tribe did that sort of thing..."

Sokka turned kinda purple.

" _Concubines?!_ No!" he exclaimed. "I'd never do that to Suki or Toph! I respect them _way_ too much for that!" he said, looking flustered and a more than a little vexed by that remark. "I just mean... well, Suki can't really marry me anyways, because of her vows and all, but if I _did_ marry her, as well as Toph, _that_ would be polygamy. I know it's not done a whole lot, nowadays, but I'd think you would have at least _heard_ of it."

But Zuko was having a little difficulty processing this.

"Wait, do you mean, some people actually get _married_ to more than one person?!" he spluttered, sounding almost aghast. "But—! I—! How would that even _work?!_ " he exclaimed. Even Mai appeared to be having some difficulty processing this, if the way her eyes were faintly glazing over were any indication.

(In reality, she was more just distracted with the idea of multiple husbands, particularly Zuko and... a certain young Water Tribesman whose complexion and physique she could certainly appreciate)

Sokka looked at the pair like they were out of their minds.

"I don't see what's so complicated about it," he said. "I mean, yeah you would need to provide for multiple wives, and any kids you had with them, but it's not exactly _airship science_. You just need the capital to keep them all fed and happy, and clothed and housed. Nothing complicated."

Toph snorted.

"Okay, _seriously_ ," she said, getting everyone's attention. "Quit arguing semantics! Honeybuns can't get married, anyways, so it doesn't _matter_."

Sokka and Zuko had the decency to look sheepish. And Mai was too distracted with thoughts of a steamy Fire-Knife-Water sandwich to pay much attention to the proceedings.

Suki nodded.

"Yeah," she said. "It's not really that complicated, anyway. If it comes down to it, me and Sokka can just carry on a relationship as secret lovers." She paused. "...at least, if that would be okay with _you_ , Toph."

The earthbender blushed, but she snorted derisively.

"I don't care what you two do," she said, "As long as you let me in on it."

Suki and Sokka, at that moment, turned both red as beetroots.

Toph frowned, crossing her arms over chest. She looked a mixture of peevish and flustered.

"What?" she said, cheeks erubescent. "I just want don't want to be left out of the loop."

Sokka and Suki only grew more embarrassed by this, thought it was for a much different reason than before.

It probably wasn't a good sign that they needed to mentally remind themselves that Toph was only _twelve_.

Depending on how you chose to interpret it.


	24. Rise and Fall

Some things were easier said than done. Though Sokka, Suki, and Toph had eventually come up with a general idea of how they could make this whole relationship thing work (Sokka still not realizing the nature of Toph's feelings), they all knew that plans were much easier to come up with than they were to actually carry out.

To _say_ that Sokka and Toph would go through with the marriage plans while also still maintaining a – hem – _relationship_ with Suki was fairly simple, in itself. But to actually do what was said would be a very daunting task, in all likelihood.

For one thing, there was the matter of their parents to consider. How would things go, should the Bei Fongs or Chief Hakoda learn of this... planned affair?

And, by all accounts, an affair it would be.

While Suki's parents would likely not object, particularly, should they find out, Sokka's and Toph's were a much more imposing prospect. Kyoshi Warriors, Suki had explained, and by extension the people of Kyoshi Island in general, did not traditionally view marriage as a very important thing. At best, they saw it as pointless, a meaningless affirmation of what everybody already knew.

Love, they believed, needed no pomp or circumstance or legalistic ritual. Love was love, they believed. It was a self-evident thing, when two people were in love, and most of the people of Kyoshi Island viewed marriage as a quaint, foreign ritual, after three hundred and some years of separation from the mainland, a pointless declaration of love, at best. And at worst, they saw it as a self-destructive chain. When people stayed together out of love, they would be happy together, but when they were _forced_ to stay together, bound by the expectations of family and society, the love would die.

Thus, Ai and Koi of Kyoshi would logically, likely, see no reason to object, should they learn of the... _affair_. Love was love was love. It was, to the denizens of Kyoshi, as simple as that.

This was not, of course, to imply that the Kyoshi way of handling it was without its own flaws and pitfalls, but then what thing was? It was hardly idyllic, but that was fine by them. Because most things rarely were.

However, the people of the Earth Kingdom proper – the upper class, in particular – did not hold nearly such a _laissez faire_ attitude regarding the institution of holy matrimony. Marriage was marriage was marriage, as far as they were concerned. In the upper class of the Earth Kingdom where political marriages of convenience were the norm, love was optional, not a requirement. When people got married, they were expected to stick it through for the sake of duty and propriety, regardless of however so intensely they may have despised one another.

In such an environment as this, what could they really expect from people as blue-blooded as Lao and Poppy? Surely, the Bei Fongs would disapprove of such a thing, would see it as a violation of the marriage oath. If they found out about it after Sokka and Toph's marriage, no doubt they would demand their proverbial (and literal) money back, and that could cause untold amounts of havoc.

Sokka's father, as well, would probably be leery of such a thing, though perhaps more because of a fear that it should be taken in offense by the Bei Fongs than any personal opinions on the matter. The Water Tribe was very pragmatic about marriage, and while it was certainly seen as a natural progression in a couple's relationship, it was more a promise on the man's part to provide for his wife (or wives), and on the woman's part to keep a home ready for the man, than anything.

Some tribesman, particularly those from the North Pole, might take it poorly that Suki and Sokka should carry on an intimate relationship without the ritual affirmation of marriage, but Chief Hakoda himself was an intelligent man, and knew his son well, besides. If not for the matter with the Bei Fongs, Hakoda likely would not have cared if Suki and Sokka had an ongoing affair.

Marriage was important to the Southern Water Tribe, in its own way, but so was _love_.

Still though, in spite of all of this, it had been Suki who had suggested they plainly state their intentions. After several minutes of sitting there and listening to Sokka come up with increasingly wild and outlandish plans for how to carry out a secret relationship, she had finally decided to just cut through through the proverbial Gordian Knot.

_"Why don't we just tell them?" she suggested, sitting there beside Sokka and Toph, across from Zuko and Mai. "If we keep it a secret, that will only make things that much worse when the cat-owl finally gets out of the bag."_

_When she said this, the others stared at her like she had just suggested they have Momo officiate a secret marriage between Sokka and Zuko. There was a silence so complete that she could hear the heartbeats of everyone in the room, could have told them apart just by the sound of their breathing._

_"What?" she said. "Don't look at me like that. It makes SENSE."_

_"Err..." Sokka murmured._

_"I don't know..." chimed in Zuko._

_"That's a stupid idea," scoffed Toph. "They'll shoot us down right away."_

_"Yeah, **maybe** ," Suki said with a shrug, "but think about it. Maintaining a long distance relationship is hard enough, but also keeping that relationship SECRET? It just isn't done." _

_The others looked skeptical (apart from Mai, whose golden eyes were narrowed shrewdly, thoughtfully), so Suki elaborated._

_"One way or another, no matter how we did it, something would eventually have to give. Either the stress would become too much and we would drift apart, or something would slip and they would find out," she said. "The longer you keep something secret from people, the more upset they will be when they learn it. If we try to keep this relationship a secret, things will blow up in our faces. It's inevitable."_

_Sokka deflated with a grimace._

_"Maybe..." said he, "but... I don't imagine they would approve..."_

_"So?" said Suki. "I don't care about THAT. But as long as we're straightforward and up front about our intentions, they won't have any cause to accuse us of deceit."_

_"Still sounds like a bad idea..." muttered Toph._

_"I don't know," interjected Mai, her voice quiet, tone even. "It makes sense, when you think about it. Sometimes you just have to face these kinds of things head on, instead of running away from them."_

_This phrasing caused Toph to wince, but then her expression hardened._

_"Okay..." she said slowly. "If that's the case, then I guess I can see where you're coming from." She nodded, determination written in the set of her jaw. "Yeah, I think I get it. All or nothing, right? Enough tenderfooting around. Time to take this boarcupine by the tusks."_

And so they had come here, to outside of the hotel room where the Bei Fongs were staying for the duration of their time in Ba Sing Se. Zuko and Mai had stayed behind at the Gaang's house (the former had mentioned having something he wanted to show Sokka when he got back). They did not go with Toph, Sokka, and Suki.

Zuko could not officially support what they were doing, or so Mai had said. It would be unwise for him, so early in his reign, so soon after the end of the War, to be seen meddling in the affairs of the people of the Earth Kingdom or Water Tribes. Even if the people in question were his _friends_ , spectators could very easily misconstrue any interference by Zuko in the matter of Sokka and Toph's arranged marriage.

He did not want to give off the wrong impression, did not want people to think he was trying to bully the people of the other nations, so he could not directly interfere. And besides, Mai had pointed out that it would hardly mean anything unless Sokka, Suki, and Toph did this for themselves.

They had to fight for this by themselves, had to earn on their own. Just the three of them working together.

Suki could not help but be reminded of the day of Sozin's Comet, when the three of them had alone taken down the entire Fire Nation air fleet.

In comparison to something like that, facing Toph's parents did not seem even a remotely intimidating prospect.

She looked at Sokka and gave him a grin.

"We can do this," she told him. "They aren't that scary."

Sokka weakly returned the grin, and he took her hand in his – more for his own reassurance than hers.

"I hope you're right," he said quietly.

Toph snorted. There was confident tilt to her lips, a faint, barely noticeable smirk. Unusually subtle for the brash, bullheaded girl, but then she was the one with the most reason to be daunted by the prospect of facing her parents. That she wasn't showing any sign of anxiety or nerves was, surely, a credit to how greatly the words of Suki had heartened her.

"Of course she is," said the Blind Bandit dismissively. "The woman is _always_ right."

Sokka chuckled.

"Probably," he said with a wry grin.

And then he knocked on the door.

* * *

The three were let in by a well-dressed servant, respectful and obeisant. When they announced their purpose for being there, Toph stepping forward (still wearing the dress her parents had bought, though it looked a little dirty and bedraggled) and saying that she wished to speak with her parents, the servant had looked relieved, as though he had been anticipating their arrival for some time already, and been going slowly spare from the anxiety of waiting.

He led them to a luxuriant, elaborately furnished sitting room, gaudy and garish with hangings of green and gold and elaborately carved furniture of marble and mahogany. Lao and Poppy sat at a small table. Between them was a small, elegantly decorated ceramic bottle engraved with the characters 燒酒 – a label of its contents, judging from the scent and color of the liquid held in the cups from which the two drank.

Their sips were slow and sparing, but there was a light, faintly pinkish flush to their cheeks.

Poppy was the first to notice their presence, and her eyes immediately zeroed in on Toph.

"Hello, daughter," she said primly, but also warmly.

Lao, hearing this, and seeing where his wife's eyes were glancing, followed Poppy's gaze to their daughter, as well as Sokka and Suki.

"Ah," he remarked. "Well done," he said to the older two of the trio. "You found her, just like we asked. You make a very good impression of yourself, young man," he told Sokka, smiling at the youthful Water Tribesman. "I do not doubt, now, that Poppy and I made the right choice in our selection of you."

"Uh, thank you?" said Sokka, looking uncertain whether he was supposed to take this as a compliment or what.

"You are welcome," said Lao, either unnoticing, or else uncaring, of the almost questioning tone in the lad's voice.

He and Poppy then turned their attention to Toph.

"Well, dear?" said the girl's mother.

"What do you have to say for yourself?" continued her father.

Toph blushed – though whether it was from embarrassment, frustration, or else the faint fumes of baijiu which wafted from her parents, it could not be said.

"I'll do it," she said, at a volume one or two decibels above her usual inside voice, her words spoken a bit quicker than was her want, and her voice a slightly higher pitch than usual. "I'll go through with the marriage — But!" she added, loudly, firmly, forcefully, "I have _one condition._ I'm not doing this for you guys. I don't care about whatever plans you had to arrange this for. I'm doing it because I _want_ to," she explained, her voice hard and stern, but with a hint of fire beneath. "However, I... Well, I'm _not_ going to force Sokka and Suki apart just for this. Right, you guys?"

The two nodded.

"Y-yeah," said Sokka, looking a little torn between his desire to get this over with and the sense of intimidation he got from Lao's and Poppy's stares. "I'll marry your daughter, but, with all due respect, this does not mean I'll be leaving Suki. I love her. I like Toph, too, of course, but not in the same way."

He blushed, recalling absently memories of Toph's cute moments, many of which he hadn't even thought of as such until recently, when his face had been basically _slammed_ headfirst into the fact that the Bei Fong heiress _was_ cute.

"Erm... not really, at least..." he murmured quietly, half to himself, trying not to think to hard about the altogether too pleasantly warm, too familiarly _Suki-ish_ and _Yue-like_ feelings he got in his belly whenever he found himself contemplating his friend in this strange, new light.

Suki squeezed Sokka's hand – and Lao and Poppy noticed for the first time that they _were_ holding hands, all three of them – smiling warmly, affectionately. She giggled a little.

"I think what he's trying to say is, he likes your daughter, and he thinks she's cute" — under other circumstances, Sokka probably would have spluttered and protested at this, but at a single Look from Suki he wisely held his tongue — "BUT he also loves _me_. And I love him, too. We've been through a lot together, all three of us. And we intend to _stay_ together," she continued, her eyes flashing as she spoke. "All three of us."

"Yeah," said Toph. "Even if Suki can't marry Sokka, she still really likes him, and I like her, too. She's cool and fun, and I won't make her leave him. I won't _let_ you guys push her away!" she declared quietly, but defiantly.

Lao and Poppy simply smiled.

"If that is what you want," said the Bei Fong head, waving a hand dismissively. "Far be it from _me_ to demand your husband to keep no mistresses."

Toph, Sokka, and Suki could have done a facefault at this. All of that tension and build up, only for it to be resolve so anticlimactically?! They almost could have protested, if this had not been what they had actually been hoping for.

They just hadn't expected it to be so _easy_.

"Indeed," said Poppy, with a soft, demure, noblewoman's laugh. "There are simply some things which ladies of our standing cannot be expected to do, some acts far too... _undignified_ for women of such high breeding as ourselves."

Suki resisted the urge to scowl or grimace. She bore the insulting implications of Poppy's words with a quiet dignity, showing no sign of annoyance or irritation.

 _Let them think what they want_ , she told herself. _We know how it really is. If that's what they want to believe, then let them._

Sokka did not seem to pick up on the veiled insult, though, which was probably part of the reason Suki held her tongue. He looked so happy, so relieved, to realize that he and she would be able to stay together, to learn that the Bei Fongs had no objections to them continuing their relationship.

Suki could not bring herself to disillusion him. Her boyfriend was still a little innocent to how things were done in the Earth Kingdom. He didn't understand the subtle implications of Poppy's remark. This much was obvious, because Suki knew that if Sokka _had_ understood it, he would have immediately leaped to her defense.

It was better that he did not. Suki could take the insult. She could be the bigger person, could turn the other cheek when she needed to. Sometimes you had to take action to defend what you believed in, but you also had to know how to choose your battles. An argument with the Bei Fongs would hardly be worth it, not when they had finally resolved this issue.

No need to bring in more drama when things were actually looking up.

Suki smiled.

Besides, if Poppy thought there were certain acts beneath a proper lady, then clearly she had never been with a man who had been willing to do anything for her. And Suki pitied her for that.

Because as far as Suki was concerned, there was nothing degrading about making love. Not when you truly love who you were with.

But then, she had the benefit of a boyfriend who was _very_ eager to please.

Mm, _yesss._

There was absolutely _nothing_ degrading about _that_.


	25. Confused with Gratitude

The path of a swordsman is demanding. It is not simply a fighting style, not merely a technique for using a weapon. No, the way of the sword is as much a spiritual journey as a physical one. It is a pilgrimage, a quest of self-discovery and enlightenment.

To truly master the tenants of swordsmanship – of _any_ martial art – the warrior must refine his spirit, must come to an understanding of himself and his place in the world. He must become one with the sword, must learn to identify the sword as a part of himself, a reflection of his soul.

For the sword truly is as the warrior who wields it. Of all the many and varied kinds of weapons, the sword is, in principle and theory, one of the most simple – broken down to its most basic mechanical components, the sword is a lever and a wedge. Two of the most basic, fundamental machines in the history of civilization. And this simplicity is a very large part of what makes the sword such a flexible weapon, tactically.

_"Give me a lever long enough, and I will move the world."_

Of course, there have been countless, innumerable variations on the theme of the sword throughout history, and one could spend a lifetime and a half simply studying and cataloging all the myriad shapes and forms in which the noble sword has come. Like the warrior, swords can manifest in any variety of shapes and sizes. They can be specialized to a very narrow field of utility, such as the delicate but lethal katana, ideal for slicing through soft, unarmored flesh with a frighteningly preternatural ease, or generalized to a jack of all trades, useful in any situation, like the ever-reliable Swiss longsword.

And there are of course countless more obscure and bizarre kinds of swords out there, just as there are countless strange, unbelievable sorts of warriors.

The sword is the warrior. It is an expression of the warrior's ideal state of being. Unlike the spear or axe or hammer or bow or sickle or scythe or knife or staff, the sword is no tool for hunting, or woodcraft, no peasant's weapon. The sword is the tool of the warrior. It exists for war, for battle, for bloodshed alone. It has no other purpose, no peacetime utility.

Only warriors carry swords. It is the mark of a warrior, of one who has been trained and groomed to fight and kill and defend. For a warrior, one's weapon is one's life.

Your weapon is an extension of yourself. A part of your body. It is _you_ , and you are _it._

The sword is a warrior's soul. It is your identity, your brand, your life.

To lose a sword, or any weapon, which has seen you through thick and thin, aided you in your hardest, bloodiest days, and saved your skin in those desperate moments where your life hung in the balance, as on the edge of a knife, where to stray a little too far to either side would mean _death_ , is like losing an arm or a leg. That weapon is a part of you, that sword as dear to you as a family member.

Zuko, as he sat in wait for Sokka and the others to return, thought and pondered all of this and more as he observed the long, slender, wrapped and swaddled object which rested upon his knees.

Better than most, he knew how much a sword could mean to its bearer, its master. Had not his own twin dao, after all, seen him through some of the hardest times of his life? He trusted to those swords as much as he trusted the fires which smoldered ever within him.

And his dao had gotten him through some damn sticky situations, had saved his ass where even his firebending would have failed.

In a way, though Zuko was born with the Inner Fire, there were times where he could not help but wonder if he wasn't more of a _swordsman_ than he was a firebender. The blade he had taken up by choice, a conscious decision, an informed selection of a path in life. Where the Fire chose him, _he_ chose the Sword.

And Piandao had taught him much, had taught him more than just a way of fighting. Back then, Zuko had been unable to see it, too focused on simply finding some way to make up for what he perceived as his failures as a firebender, as a warrior, but now he knew.

Much like Uncle Iroh, Sifu Piandao had been subtle. The man had taught him many things, yes, but many more still had he left for Zuko to figure out for himself, giving him just enough clues to work out those most important lessons on his own, once he was finally ready to understand and accept them. And Zuko was still learning, still unlocking the mysteries his master had left for him to unravel.

Maybe it was just a White Lotus thing. Being all vague and meaningful sounding as they taught you the basics, while leaving you to figure out the most important things for yourself. Certainly sounded like something that a club his uncle belonged to would do.

Shaking his head, Zuko sent a sideways glance at his girlfriend, Mai, who was boredly tossing knives at a slight indent in the wall – it looked to be about the size of somebody's elbow, maybe.

He considered what she had said about the sword which lay, wrapped up, concealed, across his lap.

_"So you're going to give it back to him, then?" Mai remarked. "When they get back here?"_

_"Yeah," said Zuko quietly. "I figure it might be a nice early wedding gift."_

_"A **very** nice wedding gift," Mai murmured, her thoughts doubtless going to the sword her boyfriend had brought here all the way from the palace._

_It was quiet for a moment, nothing being said between them. Mai just sat there, fiddling with a gleaming, cold stiletto._

_At length, however, after sitting there in silence for a minute or two, she spoke again._

_"I've never seen anything like it," she remarked, and her voice had a hint of something to it, something that Zuko only heard on a select few occasions. "That sword, I mean."_

_Her eyes, as shining golden as the ornament Zuko wore in his hair, gleamed as she talked._

_"I don't mean the shape or the quality of it, of course – it's good, maybe the best of its kind, but that's par for the course when you're talking about a Piandao original." Mai shook her head. "No, it's not the quality of it that's unusual. Rather, it's what it's made of. Or," she added, her lips curling in a thoughtful frown, more expression than she usual showed in a whole day dancing across her face in these few moments, "to be specific, what it ISN'T made of."_

_Zuko gave her a curious look._

_"What do you mean?" he asked her. "I mean, I know that Sokka said it was made from a shooting star, but I don't see..."_

_"Zuko?" said Mai. "I've seen metal from meteors – most old Sun Warrior weapons were made with ore extracted from space rocks. And those weapons? Nothing special, really. It's just iron. Nothing meaningfully different from what you could find by digging in the earth."_

_"Huh?" said Zuko intelligently. "But, Sokka's sword—"_

_"—is some kind of strange, **unique** metal or alloy," said Mai. "Trust me, Zuko. I know a lot about weapons, and I know a LOT about what weapons are made of. Whatever that sword was made from, it wasn't just from any sort of regular meteorite."_

_Her brow furrowed, and she seemed to be deep in thought. Mai was almost never this passionate or talkative – the only other place Zuko had seen this side of his girlfriend was in the bedroom. Most other things just didn't arouse her interest._

_"I... I don't know," she muttered, contemplative. "I mean, the only kind of weapons I've ever heard about that were anything like this sword... well, they're all from old spirit stories and myths. Magic, blessed weapons from another realm, another plane of existence entirely. A sword like the one you're holding should only exist in the realm of fantasy."_

_Zuko hummed thoughtfully at this._

_"...well, he IS friends with Aang," he said, shrugging it off. "This kind of thing just sort of... happens, when the Avatar is involved. I mean, Sokka's first girlfriend turned into the MOON."_

_Mai stared at him. Her expression was blank. It would have been unreadable to most, but Zuko could see the utter disbelief written all over her face._

_"What."_

Zuko chuckled quietly to himself, remembering with slight amusement how Mai had reacted to hearing the story of Princess Yue, or at least as much of it as Zuko himself knew. It was certainly a fantastic, outlandish tale, and if Zuko hadn't been there and also heard the story as well, afterwards, from Uncle Iroh, he probably would have dismissed it as false out of hand.

These were strange times, though. Times when legends straight out of yore, figures of the sort which most had believed existed only in songs and old folktales, walked the earth again, alive and _real_ for any to see. People there were like heroes of yore, masters of their elements, sages and bandits and saviors and villains.

It was times like this when Zuko truly realized just how fantastic the tale of his own life would be to most people. It was at times like this that he understood that they lived in an age of legends still.

Sokka was one of them.

And so was he.

It was a strange, surreal thought for Zuko to ponder, but not a dismaying one. Rather, it heartened him, made him want to laugh out loud.

They truly did live in such strange and wonderful times, he mused.

At that moment, the door opened.

Zuko smiled, and stood up.

* * *

Sometime between their last appearance in chapter nineteen and the events of chapter twenty-one, Aang and Katara, needing to make room for other characters, had seemingly vanished from the Gaang's house, along with Momo. They had not been doing anything particularly interesting, of course – or, at least, nothing strictly _relevant_ to the ongoing narrative of this tale – aside from maybe putting forth a token effort in looking for Toph, briefly, but other than that, they had probably just been amping up the oogie factor.

Or having tea with Pong.

Who can say? Whatever they had been doing, clearly it had been either unimportant or else not _appropriately_ entertaining.

They were out of the way, not at the house. That's the important detail. Anything more would just be filler. Like this tediously self-referential meta-narrative thing I have currently got going, for instance.

But, anyways, the point is that Aang and Katara were NOT at the house, and were NOT present for the events of the past couple of chapters. I feel it is important that we establish this, for what happens next.

(Also because I kinda forgot about them when I wrote those chapters but _SHHH THAT IS A SECRET_ )

Now, when Aang and Katara returned home after... I dunno, maybe a few rounds of tonsil hockey, or whatever you want to imagine...

...Well, whatever the case, when they returned home, it was to find Sokka, Aang's friend and Katara's big brother, tightly embracing Zuko, Aang's other friend and Katara's alleged secret love interest, while Mai and Suki looked on. Toph, for her part, was just standing there, and it was kinda hard to tell when she was or wasn't "watching" something, for obvious reasons.

And even as Aang and Katara stepped in through the door, slightly bemused at the sight of Sokka embracing the Fire Lord ( _and when had Zuko showed up?_ ), the young warrior then planted a kiss on Zuko's lips, exclaiming

" _Thankyouthankyouthankyou!_ "

in an excited tone of voice.

If Aang and Katara were stunned by this, then Zuko was downright _gobsmacked_.

...though Mai, Suki, and even Toph looked a little _too_ interested in what was currently happening.

"Wait," said Aang, his voice catching the attention of the others, who finally noticed his and Katara's presence, and his brain struggling to keep up with everything he was seeing. " _When did we find Toph?!_ "

Momo chose that moment to pop a fuzzy, big-eared head out of Aang's robes, churring and chittering at the assembled group in quite unperturbed manner.

Sokka, letting go of Zuko, turned around to face Aang and Katara. He was beaming brightly, seemingly completely uncaring that not even a second earlier he'd had his lips locked with Zuko's.

"Oh, she showed up a while ago," he said, somehow managed to sound both excited and dismissive at the same time. "But look what _Zuko_ found!" he then exclaimed.

He held up a sword, a straight black jian of peerless craftsmanship. It was a weapon they knew well, even if their acquaintance had been brief.

"Is that really... _your sword?_ " said Katara, unable to believe what she was seeing. "I thought you threw it over the side of that one airship?"

"Yeah!" said Sokka, nodding his head so fast and hard that almost Katara worried he would sprain his neck. "But Zuko _found_ it!"

He all but squealed this last part, and for a moment he looked nearly torn between hugging his sword or hugging Zuko. But then he simply shook his head and smiled.

"You're like the best pal a guy could ask for!" Sokka told Zuko, turning around to beam at the Fire Lord.

Zuko simply nodded, slowly, weakly. His face looked like it was uncertain whether it wanted to be red or white or green, and his skin was tinged with an interesting chromatic patchwork; splotches of magenta, and puce, and violet, and eggshell, and olive, and peach all coming together to form a collage of mixed, confused emotions.

"Don't mention it," was all he said, the words weakly spoken, his voice cracking just a little. He schooled his expression into one of relatively benign indifference, but he could not hide the fact that he now had something of a hundred yard stare, and was trying to look anywhere but Sokka.

He was also kinda slouched over a little, kinda awkwardly slumping his torso forward in a strange way, which Katara thought was weird because Zuko usually had _very good_ posture. And now that she thought about it, the Fire Lord's cheeks also looked, at second glance, to be more ruddy pink than anything else.

How strange.

Katara wasn't sure what to make of this.

Though Mai, Suki, and Toph certainly seemed to have their own opinion of the recent events, if their variously intrigued and... _intrigued_... expressions were anything to go by.

Katara got the feeling that she did not want to think on this too long or hard, for the sake of her own innocence. Which was in and of itself a very strange, oddly specific feeling to get, but there you have it all the same.

Better to leave well enough alone and move on to less _confusing_ matters.

Like what the slush was going to happen with that whole arranged marriage deal.


	26. Never Retreat, Beginning of the End

_I will not run away. I will not run away._

This was the mantra going through the minds of several different teens, the morning of the Harvest Festival, though for very different reasons.

For Aang, it was a matter of the Avatar and the Last Airbender telling himself that he _would_ make tonight special for Katara. Not in the way that, say, _Zuko_ might for _his_ girlfriend, because the Fire Lord was a young man of sixteen, where Aang was just _young_. But the Avatar still wanted to make sure that everything went perfectly for his sweetheart, still wanted to ensure she had a good time.

It was intimidating, though. The eyes of the entire world would be on him, and he was _really_ nervous. Compared to this, the night before the coming of Sozin's Comet seemed, in retrospect, positively _relaxing_.

For Katara, she was telling herself to face the reality of her feelings for Aang, and the fact that, as the girlfriend of the Avatar, she effectively belonged to the entire world. Going to the Harvest Festival in the Earth Palace would not be the same as going to some mere party back home. She had to represent the Southern Water Tribe, show the world that her people were not mere savages living at the fringes of society.

She had to show that the Water Tribes were every bit as civilized and cultured as the Earth Kingdom, in their own unique way. She had to prove that her people were different, yes, but not _lesser_.

This was a daunting prospect, and a heavy burden.

For Zuko Ozai's son, the still-kinda-recently crowned Fire Lord, it was very much a matter of facing the crimes of his forefathers. He could not pretend that the War never happened – as Uncle had once told him, those who did not learn from history were doomed to repeat it. But he did not want to bring it up, exactly, either, because he knew there was still resentment towards him and his nation for everything that had been done in the last hundred years.

He had to face the crimes of his father, and his grandfather, and his great grandfather, without actually mentioning them, and he had to show that the Fire Nation was changing its ways, while also not ignoring the matter of the crimes which had been committed.

Quite frankly, Zuko would rather face a tag team of his sister, Azula, cured of her madness but evil as ever, and his father, bending restored and utterly pissed, than go out there and stare down the nobility of the Earth Kingdom. But he had his responsibility as the Fire Lord, and he _knew_ it.

Mai just didn't want to go to some boring-as-soot Earth Kingdom party.

But for the three people on whom this story has most strongly focused, over the course of its length and the breadth of its telling, it was a very different, yet also fundamentally _similar_ matter.

For one, two of the three of them would be having their engagement announced at this party, and the third would be helping supervise the Earth King's protection detail, which would consist heavily of Kyoshi Warriors, who had arrived by boat the other day as per the agreed upon terms.

The first two, Sokka and Toph, were both very nervous about their part, though for admittedly different reasons.

For Sokka, it was chiefly because he still felt a little bad that he could not just tell everyone that he and Suki were still an item. While the Earth Kingdom nobility would not look down on a prince – especially not one as ( _apparently?_ ) famed as Sokka – for keeping a mistress or two, as the Bei Fongs had phrased it, there were still certain expectations that had to be met.

There were always expectations. And in Sokka and Suki's case, they would be expected to at least make some nods to discretion, for today if nothing else. It would be _quite_ the scandal, they had insisted, if the young prince were to be found having relations with his mistress the day the wedding was announced.

Sokka was still a little unused to being called a _prince_.

Still, though, he was nervous about the announcement, because while he had committed to going through with the marriage, for the sake of his tribe, it still seemed strange, to him, to be marrying _Toph_. Though a few days had passed since he, she, and Suki had made their intentions clear to the Bei Fongs (and then Chief Hakoda, later that day), Sokka was still coming to terms with the idea of Toph as a _wife_.

Partly because he was a little confused and flustered over how _easily_ and _readily_ he was able to envision it.

For Toph's part, while she was excited to the point of being nearly ill at the thought that she would be marrying Sokka, come her fourteenth birthday (a concession the Bei Fongs had made to the sensibilities of the Southern Water Tribe regarding the matter of the bare minimum as far as marriageable ages went), this was not to say that she was _showing_ it. She still had her pride, after all, and she was still reluctant to let people know that she honestly _liked_ Sokka – though a good few seemed to have guessed as much already, excepting, of course, the lad himself.

Even if Sokka didn't know about her affections, yet, a very large part of Toph was exceedingly happy at the thought of marrying him. And if a smaller, more confused and repressed part of her was _also_ happy that Suki would be staying in the loop, well, that was a _personal_ matter.

But this excitement also meant anxiety, and Toph was IMMENSELY nervous about telling the whole world that she and Sokka would be getting married. As far as she was concerned, that was as good as telling everyone that she _liked_ the teen, and that was just too much for her poor, gruff little heart to handle. Toph did not handle mushy emotions well. She preferred keeping her soft, chewy center safe and secure behind a hard, crunchy outer shell.

(Toph had a very strong sweet tooth, and she tended to indulge when seriously stressed – so she was seriously craving some rock candy, right about now)

And for Suki?

_I will not run away._

It was just a reminder of her duties as a Kyoshi Warrior.

* * *

"Okay, girls!" Suki called out to her assembled warriors. "Listen up!"

All eight of the armed and painted young women stood at attention. They were gathered in a rear courtyard of the Earth Palace, and the sun was nearing its zenith. The preparations for the night's party were well underway, servants and organizers scurrying this way and that as they hurried to meet the fast approaching deadline.

And the Kyoshi Warriors were there to do their part.

"Lie Ying, Midori," the commander, Suki, snapped out, causing two pretty, black-haired warriors to sharply salute her in the traditional Kyoshi fashion. "You two will be in charge of keeping rapscallions away from the... _ahem_... quarters of the Earth King's concubines."

The two girls, were they less professional, might have made expressions of disappointment at being assigned such a shift. But as it was, they simply nodded in understanding.

"Kagura, Xin Xing," said Suki, turning next to the two youngest warriors. "You two will be responsible for watching the kitchens and caterers."

These two looked happy at their assignment, the auburn-haired Kagura especially so.

"Uwaaah..." Kagura was drooling a little, eyes sparkling gleefully, no doubt envisioning all of the delicious foods that would be prepared and set out for the party guests. "I wonder how many kinds of rice they will have, yes?" she all but squealed, doubtless fantasizing about pigging out on the rich, abundant foodstuffs.

Suki allowed herself the luxury of a scowl as she shot the impulsive young warrior a scolding look.

"No eating," she said, "Not unless you're on break – and those have already been scheduled out, so _don't even think about pretending to be on break the whole time!_ " she said sharply, knowing all too well this one's somewhat gluttonous tendencies.

Kagura had the decency to at least look chastised until Suki turned her attention to the next two.

"Ti, Genqian," she said addressing the twin warriors with a short nod. "I assume I can trust the two of you to work with the palace guards to cover any potential points of ingress or egress for uninvited guests?"

The two nodded. The twins were consummate professionals, two of the best in their order, and they were a dangerous pair for any opponent to face. The characters on their matching hair ornaments – one saying 近, _near_ , and one saying 遠, _far_ , indicated their specialization as a tag team, as well as their similar yet contrasting personalities.

Next, Suki addressed the second to last of the warriors present. The girl had dark brown hair, worn loose, though her bangs she pinned up on one side for practicality's sake. Her hazel eyes matched the color of Suki's own, and the commander gave the girl – her third cousin twice-removed, actually – a short nod.

"Ai, I assume you and Ty Lee will be able to handle any drunks or troublemakers that pop up?" she said.

The girl nodded, the motion flowing into a brief but respectful bow.

"Yes," she said, "but. Um." She frowned. "Where _is_ Ty Lee?" she inquired.

Suki sighed.

"Helping color-coordinate the decorations," Suki muttered half sheepishly and half peevishly. She was still a little vexed over how _spacey_ the otherwise talented fighter could be.

She knew that Ty Lee was no idiot, of course. An idiot would not have the focus or discipline to master a martial art as arcane and esoteric as the former acrobat had, and at such a _young age_ , too. Chi-blocking was by far one of the most obscure and difficult martial disciplines Suki had ever heard of, and yet Ty Lee was a _master_ of it.

So, no. The girl was not an idiot, or a fool. She may have acted bubbly and airheaded much of the time, and she might never have thought things through much further than the immediate, but that did not detract from the fact that she _was_ very intelligent, after her own fashion.

But.

That _also_ did not change the fact that Ty Lee was a most whimsical soul. The girl was a very 'in-the-now' kind of person, and she rarely sweated the details. So there were indeed times where she acted very idiotically.

Even if she wasn't _really_ an idiot.

Ai – who had the same name as Suki's mother, actually, and was from her side of the family – nodded in understanding.

"So she's making sure the curtains match the drapes, then?" said the warrior, a lilting, playful tone in her voice.

Lie Ying sniggered.

Suki rolled her eyes.

"Yes," she said shortly, not being particularly in the mood for this.

Ai pouted, a little, at not being able to get a rise from her commander, but she shrugged it off easily enough and said, "Okay, sure. Yeah, I think we can handle it."

"Good," said Suki, smiling a bit wearily. Though she and Sokka had more or less figured out how things were going to work, there had still been a lot of smaller, though no less important, details to address regarding the future arrangements.

Like where the wedding would be held, or who would move in with whom, and where would they live? Because Toph would not be able to use her earth sense to see in the South Pole, they were leery of making her move in with Sokka – and the young tribesman had smacked his forehead in frustration when he realized that he had overlooked such a major detail – but also if Sokka was to be the next Chief, he couldn't just move into the the Earth Kingdom.

Eventually, they had managed to strike a compromise on the living arrangements, such that Toph and Sokka, when they married, would build a house on Whale Tail Island. The isle had traditionally been something of an outpost between the Southern Water Tribe and the Earth Kingdom, and in the past there had even been a large, permanent Water Tribe settlement on the island's southernmost tip. It was solid earth, and Toph would be able to live there without too much trouble, and increasing the Water Tribe presence on the island would certainly do much good for trade with the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation.

They had also talked about holding a wedding ceremony on Kyoshi Island, which was, while ethnically more or less Earth Kingdom, politically and economically separate, and technically had been declared its own independent nation by the 48th Earth King in gratitude to Avatar Kyoshi for halting the conquest of Chin the Terrible (and the Great, and the Conqueror, and many other epithets besides), but nothing concrete had been decided.

So, while things were certainly looking up, and they had established their terms, there was also still a lot to work out, yet. And it was a lot of work to finagle through the countless little details that they had overlooked in their initial rush.

But Suki was satisfied, though. After what felt like so much drama, it was nice to know that things were being worked out. There was still a lot to do, but for now she felt content with what they had accomplished, she, Sokka, and Toph together.

They were a team.

And they would stay that way.

Turning her attention to the last, and eldest, of the present Kyoshi Warriors, Suki smiled.

"Tae," she said, addressing the slim, ponytailed twenty-three year old. "You'll be overseeing with me. Okay?"

The woman nodded, smiling as softly and demurely as she ever did.

"It would be my honor, Commander," said she in perfect obeisance.

Suki smiled. She greatly respected the previous commander of the Kyoshi Warriors.

Tae was a good woman.

Trustworthy. Understanding. _Experienced_.

That was just what Suki needed.

* * *

Evening was coming on, the sun descending in the sky, when the festivities were finally kicked off.

Throughout the Lower Ring, rowdy parties were held, and there was much singing and drinking and dancing in the streets, as well as plenty of young and not-so-young lovers slipping behind carts or down alleys to celebrate in their own way.

A lanky, quiet young man with dark hair and pale skin slipped a hand down the pants of his petite, tomboyish companion, causing her to wriggle and squeal and playfully punch his chest.

In the Middle Ring, as well, it was a similar scene, though marginally less rambunctious and with noticeably better refreshments. As in the Lower Ring, there was plenty of singing and dancing and inappropriate fraternizing, but there were plays as well, theater acts put on by amateur performers, and much music.

A handsome, mustachioed young earthbender trailed kisses up the arm of a flushed and giggling waitress possessed of fairly considerable _attributes_. Both were visibly intoxicated, but nobody interrupted them.

In the Upper Ring, the festivities were the most orderly, though this was only relatively so. Even otherwise dignified nobles and government employees gladly cut loose on the day of the Harvest Festival, indulging a good deal in considerable amounts of food and wine and entertainments of all sorts.

A handsome, strapping, seasoned warrior of the Southern Water Tribe gladly showed off his burned arm and various other war wounds and battle scars to anyone who cared to see, boasting loudly and more than a little drunkenly of the prowess of Water Tribe men, such as himself, both on the battlefield _and_ in bed.

But it is in the Court of the Earth King, in the Palace of Ba Sing Se, that our focus will be placed. For there, our heroes shall face their final trials (if trials you can truly call them), and this shall thus also be the setting of the last arc.

The Harvest Festival has begun.

And so, too, has the End.


	27. Parties Are Not for Everyone

Sokka fought the urge to fidget uncomfortably. He was _really_ beginning to see why Toph despised these kinds of high society gatherings. Everyone was so stuffy and boring and _fake_.

It was a pain in the ass, quite frankly.

The clothes Katara had provided for him were _uncomfortable_ to say the least, and he was forced to stand stock still with a painfully ersatz smile plastered onto his face as he nodded his head at what he figured were appropriate intervals in his current "companion's" speech.

The swordsman was bored out of his mind, but he forced himself to at least _look_ like he was paying attention.

These rich, high society types seemed to believe themselves at least thrice as interesting as they actually were, judging by the way they could carry on for hours just talking about the most inane details of their personal lives and business deals, and any conversations with them quickly grew _very_ _tedious_.

For example: the young girl who was currently talking to him.

She was clearly the daughter of a nobleman or very well-to-do merchant, judging by the finery of her attire, and she was probably about thirteen years of age under all of that makeup. She had been talking interminably for the past ten minutes, only pausing to titter girlishly or bat her eyelashes at him every twenty seconds or so, and he had yet to hear her say _one_ thing of interest.

The painfully obvious attempts at flirting did not help matters, either. Sokka wished he could say that he had no idea why the lass was so interested in him, but that would be a lie. Most probably, the girl's father or mother had put her up to it, perhaps in hopes of marrying her off to him to secure political leverage with one of the heroes of the Hundred Year War.

There were other possibilities, of course, but most of them were not something Sokka wanted to consider.

...Not that he was interested in a political marriage, either, of course. Certainly not with someone he didn't even know. And while the girl certainly was cute enough, she was a bit too shallow for his taste. Sokka hadn't even realized he'd _cared_ how shallow a girl was until he'd been forced to listen to this rich wee chit's seemingly interminable giggling and squealing, but there you have it.

Compared to someone like Suki, this girl just seemed so simple and one-dimensional. She was pretty, he supposed, _maybe_ , but beneath all of that (apparently) stylish makeup was an astonishing _dearth_ of substance. She had no character, and most likely no real life experience outside the Middle Ring of Ba Sing Se, if even that.

Besides, Sokka was engaged to Toph, anyways. And continuing a relationship with Suki, too, though that part was supposed to stay secret. Apparently.

The announcement of his and Toph's engagement hadn't been made yet, however, and it would most likely still be a _number_ of hours yet before it finally _was_ made.

So until then, Sokka would just have to grit his teeth and bare it. He didn't want to be rude, after all – he wanted to make a good impression of himself before the Earth Kingdom elite, or least do his best to _not_ look like a complete buffoon. And so, not knowing the polite way to turn this lass away, he simply had to endure her company the best he could.

And if nothing else, she at least made a good shield with which to deflect other, less _tolerable_ sorts from trying to engage him in conversation.

Because shallow or not, inane or not, at least she was pretty. That alone wasn't enough for much, but it at least made it relatively easier to suffer through the conversation. That she was very bubbly, and apparently an early bloomer, too, also made it easy for Sokka to nod along as she talked.

So, _yeah_.

"—so then, Ming said, 'Aww, but I think poodle-monkeys are _adorable_ ,' but Ling told her, 'Of course not _,_ dear, it's all about _rabbaroos_ , this season.' And then Jing said, 'But I'm _allergic_ to rabbaroos!' And then Ming – if you can believe it – turned around and told her to—"

Allowing his mind to wander, Sokka idly wondered what Toph and Suki and the others were up to while he was standing here dying of boredom and sore feet.

* * *

Toph hated high society parties. No matter what you called it – be it a banquet, a gala, a ball, or _whatever_ – she simply _loathed_ them. They were boring, inane, pointless, boring, stuffy, banal, and worst of all _boring_.

Plus, there was the particular kind of people of who tended to gather at those sorts of parties, the schmoozers and snobs and ass-kissers and poseurs. Nobles. Courtiers. Rich folk.

These were the worst sorts of people, in Toph Bei Fong's opinion.

The absolute _worst_.

"Is that his majesty? The prince of the Southern Water Tribe?"

"Oh my, I think it is. Ah! He is _gorgeous!"_

"Yes, isn't he _just_ _?_ "

Toph scowled intensely, dressed in fine, exquisite silk and made up in that subtly pretentious, yet undeniably _elegant_ way that only a high and wealthy noble's daughter could manage. She did not at all like being so gussied up, and she liked listening to how these _trollops_ fawned over Sokka even less.

They were so shallow. All they talked about was how _handsome_ he looked, saying nonsense and tittering about how Earth Kingdom dress suited him _so well_. It was sickening, how these women went on and on about such stupid things like that, and Toph dearly wished she could go elsewhere in the party and hang out with her friends.

Except this was her _debut_ as the Bei Fong heiress, and so she could not do anything like that, _no_. She had to make connections with the other noble daughters and women, had to stay out of the way until it was her time to come forward.

"I hear he once dueled the Fire Lord to a standstill," Toph heard one of the younger women say to a friend of similar age.

"Do you mean the new Fire Lord?" said the girl's friend. "Or the old one?"

"Does it really _matter?_ " said the first one. "He did it, and that's enough for me." She tittered girlishly, and Toph had to resist the urge to gag.

"That's funny," came another voice, dry and sarcastic and _wonderfully familiar_ among all these shallow poseurs. "The way I hear it, Zuko wiped the floor with him until the last spar."

Toph felt the first two girls stiffen up, and they immediately went silent. Not that many would have blamed them for doing so.

Not when they had just been interrupted by the girlfriend of the Fire Lord.

Toph could not help the grin that came onto her face as the two girls quickly scurried away from Mai, no doubt intimidated by the young woman's quietly threatening demeanor.

"Thanks," she said, addressing the surprisingly unarmed consort of Fire Lord Zuko. "Those two were driving me _crazy_ with their stupid gossip."

"That sort tends to," said Mai laconically, dismissively.

Toph chuckled.

"Yeah," she said. "Can you believe how they were going on about Sokka?"

"Do you mean _Prince_ Sokka?" said Mai dryly, and Toph detected a note of humor in the girl's voice. She supposed that the young woman still viewed Sokka somewhat as a _peasant_ , and not anyone particularly _important_ in the grand scheme of things.

Toph laughed.

"Yeah, I suppose so," she chortled in a rather unmaidenly manner, but her words were not as joking as she perhaps tried to make them sound. "He _is_ a prince, after all."

Toph could feel Mai's head tilt ever-so-slightly to one side, and she perceived the faintest quirking of an eyebrow.

"I thought he was Water Tribe, though," remarked Mai idly.

"Being Water Tribe isn't exclusive with being royalty," replied Toph casually, echoing Katara's words from that conversation by the koi pond. "And he _is_ basically the next-in-line to become chief."

For a moment she almost thought that she could make out the crease of a small smile on Mai's face. But it was gone before she could be sure – if it had even been there to begin with.

"Maybe," said Mai, and there was a world of meaning in that one, single word. So much nuance conveyed in a mere two syllables, that almost Toph marveled at how so many diverse thoughts and emotions could be invoked by a lone, solitary utterance.

Toph's grin widened, though, as she pinned down the heart of Mai's meaning.

"Yeah," she murmured, smiling. " _Maybe_."

_If you can say he is a prince, then I suppose he's as good as royalty already._

Perhaps Mai had a point.

Sokka was, in a way, Toph's Prince Charming.

And _oh_ , but she only just _now_ realized how _cheesy_ that sounded.

...though that still didn't make it any less true.

* * *

"...and he says to me, the blighter does, he says, 'How was _I_ supposed to know she was a woman? Her arms were the size of tree trunks!'"

Ty Lee giggled, listening to the drunk tell his tale quite unperturbed by the fact that he was being dragged out of the palace, slung bonelessly over the newest Kyoshi Warrior's shoulder like a very light sack of potatoes.

"And o' course, I says to him, I does, I says, 'Zhao, ye poor bastard. Ye ain't _lived_ 'til ye've done it with a woman what could snap ye in half like a twig!'"

Ai let out a snigger, carrying another drunk partygoer over her own shoulder.

Ty Lee shifted the man's weight a little on her shoulder. She had a bit of a thoughtful expression on her face, though her storm cloud gray eyes were still twinkling merrily.

"Oh yeah," she said, "You _did_ serve with Zhao, back in the army, didn't you, Uncle Scruffy?"

Ai shot the girl a curious look.

"' _Scruffy?_ '" she said questioningly, before frowning a little and adding. "Wait, that drunk is your _uncle?_ I thought you were Fire Nation?" _  
_

"Sure am!" said Ty Lee cheerfully. "And so is Uncle Scruffy. He's kinda an important noble, actually!"

"Used ter be, more like!" said the – now that Ai took a closer look – gray-eyed, gray-streaked brunet, his tone sounding quite cheerful as he said this. "But then me rotter of a wee brother petitioned ter have me removed from the family on account o' me kinda vomitin' in the Fire Lord's garden durin' one o' them fancy shindigs."

Ty Lee giggled.

"I think I remember that!" she said. "Dad was _so_ cranky when you came over, that day!"

"Aye!" said the drunk with a jolly laugh as his niece carried him past the final checkpoint and out the palace gate. "He was right _pissed_ , he was, and not in the fun way! And I don't remember _ever_ seeing the Lady Ursa so mad, either, as when she saw what I did to the begonias."

"Do I even _want_ to know?" said Ai, half amused at the rapport she was seeing between these two.

"Probably not," confessed Scruffy, as Ty Lee had called him. "Nor what I got up to with that maidservant behind General Iroh's favorite rosebush. Or that other maidservant. Or that one—"

"—Yeah, okay," Ai interjected. "I think I get idea."

Ty Lee giggled.

"Yeah, Uncle Scruffy was a real troublemaker, back when I was little."

"Still am, too!" the slender, aging man cheerfully crowed. " _Madman Mushi_ , that's what me army buddies called me. Hah! Or at least, the ones what didn't jes' call me Scruffy!" he drunkenly guffawed.

Ai cocked an eyebrow at this.

"' _Mushi?_ '" she said.

"Aye," replied Scruffy brightly. "Mushi Lee! Tha's what me name is, or at least as me parents dubbed me. Named after me pa, I was, so most everyone jes' called me Junior – leastwise, back when the old bastard was still kickin' around."

Ai winced.

She did not envy anyone who had to call themselves something like _that_.

Back inside the palace, Iroh sneezed.

* * *

Aang and Katara were the darlings of the dance floor, and a very sweet couple.

That's all there is to say on that matter.

* * *

Suki could not help sighing a little as she watched the couples dance across the floor. The sound was wistful, morose, and her second could not help but notice it.

Tae smiled knowing as she saw the spark in the eyes of her commander and successor.

"You want to dance with Sokka," she remarked shrewdly, sympathetically.

Suki smiled.

"Perhaps," said she. "But I have my duty."

Tae's eyes twinkled.

"Ah, but don't we _all_ , though?" she mused. "The life of a Kyoshi Warrior – of _any_ warrior – is one of sacrifice after sacrifice. It is not an easy path, or a rewarding one, but it is still a path that we must follow through to the end."

"' _Blood is forever_ ,'" Suki responded softly, quoting some old instruction of her mentor. "Remember when you first told me that?"

"I do indeed," said Tae, smiling warmly at her former pupil. She brushed a hand against Suki's, and the girl appeared to blush the slightest bit, beneath her makeup. "I remember well, how cute you looked when I shared that bit of wisdom with you..."

Suki brushed aside a loose bang, and she shyly averted her gaze from that of the previous commander.

"For the longest time," she said slowly, still not meeting her mentor and trusted second's eyes, "I thought blood meant _family_ , but now... I think I finally realize, it's not about the blood in your veins, at all."

Suki looked up into Tae's brown eyes once more, and the present commander's predecessor saw a queer light in her eyes, one of understanding and conviction.

Tae's smile turned to one of pride as Suki continued.

"Bonds forged through blood..." the young woman whispered, "The bonds of warriors who fight and kill, and live and die side by side on the field of battle... _Those_ are forever."

" _Family may disown you_ ," Tae remarked, and her voice sounded almost as though she were quoting a line from some old, half-forgotten shanty, " _But these Sisters stick together_."

" _Side by side, proud and true_ ," murmured Suki, the words coming to her as if from the mists of distant memory, " _We're birds all of one feather_."

" _So sing it loud_ ," Tae continued, " _and sing it, you!_ "

Suki, with a grin, all but belted out the final line.

" _These Sisters stick together!_ " she sang, just loudly enough for the words to lift into the air before melting into the sound of the pompous, gay dance music being played by the band.

Tae gave Suki a friendly clap on the shoulder, eyes shining warmly, affectionately.

"You've come a long way, Commander," she said. "You do your rank more pride than I did. And," she added, giving Suki a piercing, knowing, yet _happy_ look, "I'm sure things will work out for you and your boyfriend – and your little girlfriend, too."

Suki stiffened.

"Ah!" she squeaked, eyes looking a mite wide. "How did you...?"

Tae could see the blush clearly on her leader's face, even beneath the heavy warpaint of their order.

"You're still as easy to read as ever, Suki, dear," she chirped, giving the younger girl a friendly pat on the bum.

Suki's blush only deepened.


	28. Raising Spirit

The hours wore on, the party continued. The Harvest Festival was well under way, and even in the Earth Palace, in the heart of King Kuei's court, many were now beginning to indulge themselves in food and drink and various entertainments.

The portly, balding Minister of the Interior was quite redfaced and tipsy as he flirted with the wrinkling, gray-haired Secretary of the Treasury, who was giggling most inappropriately at all of his terrible jokes.

The Council of Five, the Earth King's most trusted generals, were swapping war stories and drinking liberally. General How and General Sung were singing a dreadfully off-key duet of _Four Seasons_ , while Chang, Lee, and Bai-Guan guffawed uproariously over some account or other of their troops' assorted petty misdeeds and misadventures.

The Earth King himself was accompanied by an attractive, but faintly menacing woman with jet black hair and very pale skin, who was cozying up most shamelessly to the young monarch. Off to the side, a shirshu was lounging against a tall, intricately carved pillar.

The Fire Lord, for his part, was sitting between his girlfriend and his uncle, quietly sipping at a cup of tea. Iroh, next to Zuko, had a pinkish flush to his face, and was chortling in amusement as he listened to an anecdote from his fellow White Lotus, Piandao. Mai, herself, was doing a very good job of maintaining an uninterested facade as she listened to Ty Lee talking about her adventures with the Kyoshi Warriors.

Aang and Katara were still dancing, though the music had long since stopped playing, smiling warmly at one another and staring each so intently into the eyes of the other. Momo was flying through the air, doing loop-de-loops and flips and barrel rolls to the amusement and delight of several partygoers, many of whom offered bits of fruit to the lemur, who gladly accepted their sweet, juicy tribute.

Suki, commander of the Kyoshi Warriors, was sitting and talking with Sokka and Toph, the latter of whom was looking just the tiniest bit tipsy from the small cup of baijiu she had been nursing for the last ten minutes. Suki also was a little flushed, and Sokka might have sneaked himself a sip or two of some wine as well.

"I'm so _jealous_ of you, Toph," said Suki matter-of-factly, eyeing the young girl in her fine dress and subtle makeup. "You have such _nice skin_. It looks so _white_ and _soft_. How do you do it?"

Toph shrugged, blushing a little at Suki's gushing.

"I dunno..." she mumbled, a touch dismissive, perhaps, but also looking a mite self-conscious. "I mean, _white_ doesn't really mean much, to me. You know?"

Suki blinked. Then she blushed.

"Oh!" she said. "I'm sorry, I forgot! I shouldn't have..."

Toph smirked.

"Aw, don't worry about it~" she said, giving the warrior a friendly slap on the back – though at her height, her hand came closer to Suki's bum than her shoulders, and the Kyoshi Warrior looked well aware of this. "I mean, I still get what you're talking about, mostly. It's, like, to do with sunburns, right? I don't know about color, but my skin is kinda sensitive to sunlight," she explained. "I get sunburned pretty easy, honestly. And I can feel it _so bad_ when I do, too."

Suki nodded, getting what Toph was talking about.

"You don't tan – you burn _._ Is that it?" she said. "I don't really have that problem, but one of the younger warriors, Kagura... Oh, her skin is _terribly_ sensitive to sunlight. She burns very easily, and so she's _really_ pale. Like a ghost, almost."

"Sounds about right," said Toph. "I can't hardly even go outside without a good coating of earth, or I'll fry like an egg."

"Mmm..." Sokka interjected at that moment, a dreamily hungry look on his face. " _Fried eggs_..." He drooled just a little bit and rubbed his stomach, which sounded to be faintly growling and rumbling. "When do we get to eat, do you suppose?"

Suki gave him a strange look at that.

"The banquet was laid out half an hour ago," she told him. "Didn't you know that?"

Sokka's eyes widened to the size of dinner plates.

"No!" he exclaimed, his voice maybe just a little bit shrill as he jumped to his. "I did _not!_ _"_

And he immediately ran off in the opposite direction of the dinner tables.

"Wrong way, Snoozles!" Toph called out to him.

"I knew that!" called Sokka, though he immediately changed direction and doubled back.

As he jogged off in the direction of the buffet tables, Suki shook her head in amusement.

"We have our work cut out for us, huh?" remarked Toph, smirking a little lopsidedly.

Suki could not help noticing how cute the expression was on the younger girl's face. Maybe it was the fumes of alcohol so heavy in the air, or maybe it was a product of certain proclivities born of old Kyoshi Warrior traditions, or maybe it was merely some manner of repressed emotions simply reaching the boiling point and bursting through her inhibitions, but Suki found herself smiling as she scooted closer to the earthbender.

"We sure do," she cheerfully remarked, a faint pink tinge to her cheeks as she casually wrapped an arm around Toph's waist. The metalbender was momentarily startled by this, but she shook it off after a second.

Though her cheeks were a still a touch redder than they had been before Suki initiated that contact.

"...You're warm," Toph faintly heard herself mumble, leaning a little bit into Suki. "So soft, too..."

The Kyoshi Warrior smiled.

"Give it a few years," Suki said, smiling at the way Toph blearily nuzzled her head into her bosom, "and I'm sure that _you_ will be just as soft, too."

Toph blushed, appearing to get pretty quickly the gist of what Suki was saying. She did not remove her head from where it was, though.

"You... smell nice, too..." the lass murmured. "Like Sokka," she said, "Except with more flowers and sweetness."

"And you smell like dirt," Suki replied teasingly.

Toph was unperturbed, though.

"Yeah," she said, smiling and lifting her head. She tilted her face upwards, as though she were looking up at Suki, and the warrior was a little breathless at how eerily beautiful Toph's eyes appeared in that moment, glassy and clouded. Like the eyes of a ghost, they seemed, strange yet fair in a sort of ethereal, otherworldly way. "Isn't it great?"

"Yeah..." said Suki, lost in Toph's eyes, not hearing really what the younger girl was saying. "You have the most _beautiful_ eyes, Toph," she said, and at that moment she realized that maybe the juice Tae had given her had _not_ been nonalcoholic, after all.

The earthbender's blush deepened, and idly she became aware that she had wrapped her arms around Suki.

"I wish I could say the same for you," she said, half-joking, half-wistful. The baijiu had burned going down her throat, even just the small amount she had drunk, but now it felt so pleasantly warm and tingly in her belly.

Suki snorted, laughing gracelessly.

"Yeah," she giggled, smiling more widely. "But Sokka tells me they're gorgeous, if that helps any," she said softly, leaning down so that her face was closer to Toph's.

The blind young girl could feel Suki's breath against her face, warm and humid and smelling faintly of some undecipherable mix of fruits and berries.

"I wish he'd tell me that _my_ eyes were gorgeous..." Toph heard herself mutter.

"Give him time," Suki said warmly. "I'm sure he'll be cooing over you, before long."

Toph's blush had deepened so much by this point that it was almost a wonder how her face could possibly get any redder.

"D-do you think so...?" she wondered, sounding uncharacteristically nervous and anxious.

Suki planted a kiss on Toph's lips. It was soft, warm, sweet, and enticing.

"I _know_ so," she said, breaking the contact between their lips after a few wonderful seconds.

Toph felt her body kinda turn to jelly, except it was in the best way she could possibly imagine, and she let herself melt into Suki's side. She was smiling softly, happily bemused by this sudden, strange feeling in her belly.

There was only one reason that nobody was present to see this.

* * *

Onlookers watched, attention rapt, in awe and amazement as these two combatants twisted and danced across the ballroom floor. The air sang with the sound of hard keen steel, light dancing off of blades in a deadly play of motion.

Dao against jian. Two swords against one. Fire against Water. Ivory against ebony.

It was a graceful dance, this combat, this spar, this staged real duel. Across the floor, they moved swift and fluid, sharp and deadly. Like wild beasts, graceful cats; swift, agile leolope, or powerful, lithe tigerdillo.

They leaped, they sprang, darting and diving, bobbing and weaving. They were evenly matched, or so it should seem, ever moving, ever dancing, ever seeking an opening through which to slip their steel. Nimble, they were, skillful performers, or so it appeared. The advantage never went to either for more than a moment, always going back and forth like the movement of the tides.

Push and pull.

Like leaping flame, their movements were swift and unpredictable, yet graceful also. Well determined was every step, every stroke, never more or less than needed to be done. Deliberate, they were, in the way of martial violence, every swing and thrust and parry and feint carefully calculated to bring them that much closer to deciding the match.

Light as air were their steps, toes skipping across the ground in a quick, lethal course. Neither could touch upon the other, their bodies always moving out of the way, seeming as impossible to pin as a flickering flame. Yet sturdy were their stances, solid their roots, immovable when they did not desire to be moved. And they flowed together, and apart, and as one, a motion circular and linear and indefinable at once, ever moving, never stopping, graceful and fluid and gradually each wearing down the other.

A longsword straight, and double-edged – a stately jian all in black. Twin dao, flashing silver, two members moving as part of a whole.

This dance of blades, this play of light and sound and fighting spirit, was a marvelous thing, a spectacle sublime and incomparable among all of the Festival's entertainments.

Yet this was scarce an act. These were no performers.

"Why are we fighting, again?" asked Sokka, the edge of Space Sword scraping along the flat of Zuko's left-hand dao, sparks flying up as the Fire Lord deflected the slicing blade away from his body. "I just came over here to get some food."

Zuko sighed, shaking his head just a little as he moved his right-hand dao across in an arc, sweeping through the air. But Sokka's longer sword had him kept just outside of striking distance, and the stroke was for naught, save only perhaps to make Sokka pull back just a little, and draw Space Sword up in defense against any other oncoming attacks.

"You're the one who challenged me," he said. "Did you already forget, Sokka?"

The other teen shrugged.

"My memory _might_ be a little hazy," Sokka conceded. "That wine was a bit stronger than I expected."

He took a step forward, thrusting towards Zuko's breast. But the Fire Lord sidestepped, and moved in forward, guarding his flank with one blade while he brought the other up to slash across Sokka's face—

"You don't say," Zuko remarked casually.

—if not for the young tribesman leaning back at just the right moment to avoid getting cut, his sword moving in harmony with his body as he batted aside Zuko's right-hand dao. Space Sword was inside Zuko's guard, now, and he thrust it forward—

"Yeah," said Sokka. "I'm not sure I'm even completely sober at this moment."

—except then Zuko brought his left-hand blade up, bringing the right-hand one back in as well to catch Space Sword in a scissor-block, pushing the blade's trajectory up harmlessly over his shoulder, before closing in and slipping his twin dao down—

"That strikes me as being _incredibly_ irresponsible," Zuko responded, frowning a little bit.

—only for Sokka to twist his sword out of the lock, and then twist his body out of the way, swiftly and fluidly circling around Zuko, pivoting on his heels as he swung his jian in an arc at Zuko's back—

"Eh, I'd say I'm doing well enough for myself, all things considered," replied Sokka dismissively. "Wouldn't you?"

—but Zuko was not immobile, and he ducked aside, his dao describing a deceptive path through the air as he brought them around to strike at Sokka's unguarded flank—

"It's careless," the Fire Lord grunted. "And you'll get hurt doing something that stupid."

—yet there was a flash of black, Sokka pivoting and twirling at a nearly impossible angle to bring Space Sword around, catching Zuko's edges on its flat. The momentum, he used to push the blades up uselessly over Zuko's head, before twisting his arms and bringing the obsidian-colored blade of his own sword down—

"Maybe," said Sokka with a smirk, "But it looks like it's a match set n—"

—only for Zuko to expel fire from his mouth, forcing Sokka to instinctively jerk his arms and body back to keep from getting burned. The gout of red and gold stopped just inches from his face after he skipped back, and the heat of it caused beads of sweat to form on his brow.

But then the flames dissipated a moment later, and the two duelists became aware of the stunned onlookers.

"—nnnow look at that!" said Sokka, looking much too pleased with himself considering how close he had just come to getting his eyebrows burned off. "I _told_ you I could force you to firebend!"

Zuko, looking rather like his body had only just all at once realized what a vigorous exercise it had been going through, as though the fatigue had only now caught up with the rest of him, smiled weakly.

"So you did," he managed to pant out, shoulders heaving and sweat running down his brow. "That was a very good match. You've come a _long_ way since the last time we sparred. Sifu Piandao has taught you well."

The tension in the air seemed to lessen, the observers relaxing once more when they saw no hostility between the two. And already murmurs were beginning to pass back and forth about the possible past between the Fire Lord and Prince Sokka. Some whispered of rivalry between fellow students, others of forbidden love between the leaders-to-be of two enemy nations, and even others still of an illicit tryst between them and everyone else that either one knew.

But still, the word carried nonetheless that the prince of the Southern Water Tribe had matched the Fire Lord in a spar, in a duel, in a—

"That was a _great_ Swordbending Kai!" Sokka declared happily.

Zuko would have face-palmed, if not for the swords in either hand.

— _Swordbending Kai_.

Huh.

That had a certain ring to it.


	29. HAKODA! WRESTLES! A MOTHERFUCKING BEAR!

As a story draws to its close, it is natural, and _expected_ , for its author to tie up loose ends, and find some way to give an emotionally satisfying conclusion to their tale. As important as it is to know how to start a story, so too is it crucial to know how to end it.

There are, of course, many ways to go about this. There is much to be said for thematic continuity, and moral lessons, and even just the visceral thrill of a successful climax.

Rising action leads to the point of highest tension and emotion, the literary orgasm, and following that is the falling action, the denouement, leading inevitably to THE END. This is the most fundamental, basic structure of story telling, in its simplest form. It is all about emotion, the thoughts and feelings of the author being conveyed to the reader, being impressed upon their hearts. You must make the reader feel what you feel, what you _want_ them to feel.

There are many ways to do this.

I, for one, prefer meaningless spectacle and pizzazz.

Like so:

Meat was important, in the Water Tribes.

Meat is food. Meat is sustenance. Meat is fuel and strength and heart and soul.

To slay a mighty beast, to consume its flesh, to take a portion of its lingering essence, its life force, into yourself. That is the tradition of a Water Tribe hunter, a Water Tribe brave. The icy poles support all but naught, in the way of vegetation. What few manners of plant life can be harvested for sustenance, must come from the icy waters.

Seaweed. Sea prunes.

Those are the chief types of edible vegetation to be found in the North and South Poles. And they come from the sea, from the frigid, chilling waters. Because of this, they are rarities, delicacies. Harvesting such things is no easy task, when to dive into the waters is to face all but certain death.

So meat, the flesh of beasts, was and is the primary food source for the Water Tribes. Produce, grains, vegetables and fruits are novelties, to Water Tribe men, and they are appropriately relished as such.

But meat is a _staple_. Meat is the foundation of a warrior's diet, a Water Tribesman's diet. A meal without meat is, to a person of the Water Tribes, scarcely a meal at all.

So naturally, a man of the South as hearty and strapping as the White Wolf, Hakoda son of Amaguq the Clever, would gravitate towards the section of the banquet where a veritable cornucopia of brazed and grilled and roasted meats were heavily laden on great ceramic plates. Like his son after him, and his father before him, Hakoda was a strong and cunning man of great appetite and vitality. Such a vast plethora of generous assorted helpings of beast-flesh would of course draw his notice, and whet his appetite.

That there was no other person sitting at this particular end of this particular table did not bother or perturb him. He simply looked at it and said, "All the more for me!" to himself with a hearty chortle.

Now, it should be noted that such a great feast of meats as were laden there before Hakoda would be _incredibly_ costly to arrange. Fresh meat came at a premium, in Ba Sing Se, and such a carnal banquet as this would be no small expense, even for the Earth King himself.

But, then, Kuei _rarely_ spared any expense when it came to Bosco.

And it _was_ , in truth, chiefly for the Fifty-Second Earth King's most beloved pet and trusted ursine companion that this buffet was laid out. This was the main reason there were so few people in this area of the banquet. While Bosco was still quite tame, around its owner and master, the great, brown bear had, during the weeks of traveling incognito throughout the countryside along the then-deposed Earth King, relearned _much_ of what once had been lost in its nurturing and domestication.

There had, when Kuei was first reinstated, been a few attempts on his life by various extremist groups, but every assassination had been thwarted – and quite _messily_ , at that – by Bosco. For the hardships of the road had reawakened in the mighty beast the instincts of its ancestors, of the proud and terrible _bruin_ , and Bosco was harder, now, fiercer and more savage when provoked to anger.

And a bear as well-fed as Bosco tended to be _very_ protective of its food.

Hakoda eagerly piled meats onto his plate, steaks and sausages and briskets so tender, so juicy and mouthwatering and perfectly seasoned that they melted on your tongue, and the smell of them was enough to make his stomach rumble like a komodo rhino stampede. His mouth was watering, a little, as he tore hungrily into the food with as much abandon as his son or father would have shown when faced with such a glorious buffet.

But even as the Tribal Chief of the South Pole eagerly devoured a thick, meaty drumstick, Bosco began also to feast, tearing greedily into the savory meats laid out before him.

These two made quite the sight, feeding more like a pair of wild beasts than the leader of a nation and the pampered pet of the leader of another, much _bigger_ nation. Many partygoers could not help but stop and gawk in morbid fascination, beholding the frightful spectacle of Hakoda and Bosco ravenously assaulting the table so heavily laden with the flesh of so many beasts.

Between the two of them, the meat was quickly devoured, a grotesque carnival of the rapacious appetites of man and beast alike. Soon, their gazes met, and they found, both of them, that there was but a single steak left on the table.

It was a testament, perhaps, to the fearlessness of Water Tribe men, or else simply the borderline _foolhardy_ love of meat in Sokka and his forefathers that, when Bosco made the move to snatch up the steak, Hakoda _immediately_ tackled the eight hundred pound mass of teeth, claws, and brute animal strength straight to the floor.

What followed was, at once, perhaps both the most farcical, and the most _epic_ , showdown to _go_ down in the court of the Earth King since the day that Avatar Kyoshi caused the rule against the serving of alcohol to the Avatar to be put in place within the city limits of Ba Sing Se. Hakoda wrestled with Bosco, and Bosco wrestled with Hakoda. It was the fight of the century (excluding maybe, y'know, Aang versus Ozai): man versus beast, nature versus civilization, predator versus predator.

Hakoda slammed Bosco through a table, only for Bosco to roll over, swiping a large meaty paw at Hakoda's flank, smashing him into the floor. Hakoda grabbed Bosco's foreleg, recovering to flip the bear onto its back. Except Bosco pinned Hakoda's arm between his two great paws, and threw the hunter down next to him.

Blow after blow was exchanged, the pair grappling and wrestling unceasingly, determinedly. Bosco and Hakoda fought fiercely for the last piece of meat, clawing and hammering and biting and beating at one another's bodies.

" _A grudge over food runs deeper than the ocean_ ," as they say in the Water Tribes.

And so they fought, seemingly without end, a spectacle of the terrible strength of the ursine race, and the indomitable ferocity of the Swerting warriors.

Hakoda drove Bosco headfirst into a pillar.

Bosco threw Hakoda against the wall.

Hakoda smashed a chair over Bosco's head.

Bosco bit down on Hakoda's head.

Back and forth, on and on, the two went, and went. They fought tirelessly, driven by the desire for the last piece of meat.

The party descended into chaos as the pair went this way and that across the ballroom floor. Courtiers and nobles scattered before the dreadful, thunderous rumor of this warring duo's approach. Furniture was broken, bottles were shattered, and trousers were soiled as Bosco and Hakoda fought their way throughout the party, leaving scarcely so much as a single table unturned.

Yet, at last, they came to a stop, bloodied and beaten and exhausted. Neither had secured a victory. Their fight had been a draw.

(...although Hakoda was probably in _slightly_ worse shape.)

"Heh... heh..." the Chief of the Southern Water Tribe panted, sweat mixing with blood as both trickled down his face and arms. "You... are a worthy opponent..."

His shoulders were rising and falling with the effort of every labored, weary breath, and yet Hakoda had a look of strange satisfaction on his face, a grimly fierce smile upturning the corners of his lips.

Bosco, fur mussed and grizzled, shirt torn and tattered, and funny green hat nowhere to be seen, lowed softly in what might have been something like agreement, growling contentedly, if that really made sense.

They looked like nothing so much as hotblooded rivals in a shōnen fighting manga, perhaps, tired and battered after a long, multi-chapter duel. There was a sense of respect in their eyes, now, as they surveyed one another, a glimmer of the sort of camaraderie which could only be established between hotblooded men by beating each other into a pulp.

Hakoda grinned. So would have Bosco, had the pampered brown bear a real understanding of human facial expressions.

Naturally, that was when Sokka showed up.

"Hey, dad," said the teen with his mouth full, carrying what looked to be a half-eaten steak on a plate between his hands. "What'cha doin'?"

Hakoda and Bosco's eyes widened as one.

They _recognized_ that steak.

They looked at one another. Wordless understanding passed between them in a single glance.

Then they pounced.

Sokka _may or may not_ have screamed like a little girl.

* * *

" _Honestly_ ," Katara muttered irritably, bending some water onto her father's arm. "What were you _thinking_ , Dad? The party was a _complete disaster_ , because of you!"

Hakoda hissed a little as the water covering the cuts and scrapes on his arm began to glow.

"S-sorry, sweetie," he mumbled, gritting his teeth a little against the sting as Katara washed the cuts with a bit less gentleness than was probably called for, removing any contaminants that might still have been clinging to the edges of the torn skin even as she stimulated the chi paths in her father's arm, encouraging the dermal layers to knit themselves back together. "I guess a got a little carried away..."

Katara just huffed irritably. Off to the side, her boyfriend, Aang, was talking with Earth King Kuei, who was standing next to his pet bear, Bosco, and his apparent date, the bounty hunter _June_ , of all people.

The waterbender had no idea how _that_ had happened.

As for her brother, Sokka, well he was sitting a few feet away from her, with his betrothed, his girlfriend, and his apparent best friend and _his_ girlfriend – Toph, Suki, Zuko, and Mai, respectively.

The Bei Fongs were sitting a little ways past them, looking a little shell shocked at what _chaos_ the party had descended into.

Clearly, they had never been to a _Water Tribe_ shindig, before.

Most of the other guests had long since departed, though, even those who hadn't been scared off by Hakoda and Bosco's little _performance_. The night had all but passed into the wee hours of dawn, and Katara imagined that the first, long, golden-scarlet fingers of the Sun's light might even at that moment be reaching up over the horizon to greet the sleepy, hungover city of Ba Sing Se.

Hakoda winced a little, hissing through tightly clenched teeth as he felt the first of the wounds on his arm begin to close. Katara tutted, clearly disappointed with her father's conduct.

That was when Aang came over, accompanied by the Earth King and Bosco. June stayed behind, though, along with her shirshu, Nyla.

"Well," said the young Avatar, addressing his girlfriend and the others, "I have some good news, and some bad news. Also some _really good_ news, but I think I should probably save that for last."

Katara nodded, indicating that she was listening. Sokka, Suki, Toph, Mai, and Zuko _et al_ also perked up, scooting a little closer in order to hear what he had to say.

"Okay," said Aang, continuing. "The good news—"

"—This was the greatest party _ever!_ " Kuei gushed, interrupting the Avatar. "It's been _years_ since Bosco's had so much fun! _Hasn't it_ , Bosco? You had _fun_ , didn't you?" he asked the bear in the sugary sweet sort of baby voice one might use when talking to a cute little puppy, or kitten. "Yes you did! Oh, _yes you did!_ "

Bosco roared, bashing great, powerful paws together in what was presumably meant to be clapping, sort of moving his snout up and down in something not too unlike an enthusiastic nod.

"...Yeah," said Aang, shrugging a little sheepishly. "What he said."

Zuko frowned, though.

"What's the bad news, then?" he asked.

"Um," mumbled the last airbender. "Well, we kinda have to pay for the damages."

Zuko paled, and Lao and Poppy Bei Fong, listening in apart from the rest of the group, appeared to blanch.

"And the _very good_ news?" inquired Suki just a tad hesitantly.

Aang beamed.

"King Kuei's offered to foot the bill for Toph and Sokka's wedding, when it's held!" he proclaimed cheerfully.

The Bei Fongs and Hakoda breathed a sigh of relief in unison.

Weddings were _expensive_.

Then they blinked, along with the others.

A beat.

"Wait just a moment..." muttered Lao to himself.

"It hasn't even been _announced_ , yet!" exclaimed Sokka, concluding the Bei Fong head's train of thought.

Kuei, looking up from tickling a squirming Bosco's tummy, stared at Sokka.

"Oh?" he said. "I'm sorry, was it supposed to be a surprise? I heard about it from my hairdresser, so I just assumed..."

"Your _hairdresser?_ " said Toph disbelievingly. "How would _they_ know? WE didn't even learn about it until just last week!"

The Earth King shrugged.

"Really?" he said. "As I understand, it's been the talk of the town for a _month_ , if not even longer."

Suki blinked.

"Er, anything _else_ we should know about?" she inquired, feeling something vaguely portentous about the way Kuei had said this.

The Earth King shrugged. "Just that his majesty, Prince Sokka the Brave, singlehandedly ended the Hundred Year War by tracking down the Avatar, leading him on a journey around the world to master the elements, along the way securing countless victories against the Fire Nation and various bands of roaming beasts and malcontents with nothing more than his wits and a boomerang," he said.

There was a pause of stunned silence.

"Oh, right!" Kuei said, eyes brightening after a moment of thought, before he cheerfully, innocently added: "Also that his highness saved the entire Earth Kingdom from annihilation on the day of Sozin's Comet, along with the help of his two lovers, and planned the reconquest of Ba Sing Se by the Order of the White Lotus!"

Sokka blinked.

"Wow," he said slowly, before looking to get more energetic as he declared: "I sound _awesome!_ "

Suki lightly slapped him on the back of the head.

"What?" he asked. "I _do!_ "

Toph punched him in the arm.

"I _hate_ gossip," she darkly muttered, her cheeks looking to blush bright pink in the few seconds before she buried her face in her hands with a longsuffering sigh. " _Ugh_. The things people will say..."

Suki nodded in agreement, and Sokka's eyes widened in realization.

The teen then proceeded to frown, furrowing his brow.

"Wait..." he murmured. " _Since when was I the hero?!_ "


	30. Expected Aftermath

Almost all great stories will end with one of two things: a wedding, or a funeral. A beginning of a new life, or the end of an old one.

Life and death. Joy and sorrow. Laughter and tears. Comedy and tragedy.

Yin and yang.

It is the duality of human nature, perhaps, the paradoxical dichotomy that is the mortal experience, shining through in the arts we create, which makes this so. Because humans live and die, that is how they see the world, and everything we create is thus created in the image of this.

In the image of life and death.

Into all things shaped by our hands is woven, and graven, the memory of birth, the experience of life. For humans live. They are born, and they live their lives, and in this world, this world of the living, it is LIFE to which the greater homage is inevitably paid, perhaps.

But death is also a thing of fascination. That which begins must also come to an end. There are cycles, perhaps, but the lifetime of a man is but a single, small link in the vast, unimaginable chain of birth and rebirth. We all who live must someday die. Because we are born, we must also one day expire.

In this world we live in, life is what we know. Life is all we know.

Death is a mystery. If you live, you are not dead. And if you are not dead, how can you then know what _Death_ is like?

It is an enigma. The final puzzle.

Death is an unknown. A wild card. Because of this, it is feared, far and wide, and has been throughout history. People fear death. Many will do anything they can to prolong their lives.

But life, overstretched, can become an unbearable torment. Death forestalled, a special kind of Hell. To die is natural. It is inevitable.

All things which begin must come also, at last, to an end. It is the same for a story as it is for a life. For a tale is, in a way, a life all its own, an existence which becomes something wholly apart from just the creation of its teller. It lodges itself in the minds of those who hear it, is shaped by the hearts of those who enjoy it, and retell it, and add to it their own spins and interpretations.

A story is a life all its own. Even as it begins, so too must it end.

But even an ending can be a beginning. Though this tale may come to its conclusion, may be finally finished after an overlong delay, it shall still remain in the minds of you, the reader. Whether you have enjoyed it, or merely read it through out of morbid curiosity, you will nonetheless be changed, perhaps, in some small way once this tale has reached its inevitable conclusion.

For nothing in this world is static. Everything is in a continual state of flux, of change, of death and resurrection, adaptation and evolution. No man is an island. We do not exist within a vacuum.

Every thing changes every other thing. Life is a series of interactions between elements, chemicals, molecules, _souls_. If you read this tale, then you have taken some small part of it, of myself, the writer, into your own identity, your own consciousness. Even if, with the passing of time, short or long, you should eventually forget this story, its effects will be forever.

Even if it is only a small, minuscule, insignificant thing, you will still be changed. Even as I myself shall be changed, in some small way, upon the conclusion of this story.

We are not catalysts. We cannot change others without also changing ourselves. We cannot go through an experience, great or small, without being _changed_ in some subtle fashion, on some inscrutable, _imperceptible_ level of our being.

For ours is a dynamic existence. Ever and anon are we changed, are we _pushed_ upon by forces outside of ourselves, acted upon by external elements and made to adapt and evolve. A person's identity is not some independent, immutable thing separate from the world in which we live. To the contrary, we are, as many would say, the sum of our experiences.

The native substance of the soul, the self-aware consciousness with which we are endowed at birth, is like clay. From a young age, we are molded by the people around, the things which we learn and are taught. As we grow, the clay slowly dries, becomes gradually less pliable and malleable, but never does it become wholly rigid, completely hard.

Not until death. For death is as a kiln, a firing furnace into which every soul is ultimately placed. It is the final change a person undergoes in this life, the greatest change since birth. None can say, without incurring debate, whence does speed the mortal consciousness upon the cessation of life, but nonetheless: once you are dead, the things of this world have no more bearing upon you.

But until then, you are changeable, you are mutable and adaptable. Until it finally ends, you are alive. Until then, you can still live and learn and love and lose.

But the end _will_ come. Sooner or later. Even as it has for this tale.

* * *

Many things happened during the span of time between the announcement of the engagement, and the day of the wedding. It was a little over one and a half years (about twenty months, give or take) before Toph turned fourteen.

Many things changed during that time.

Aang and Katara were, of course, still dating. They were going steady, inasmuch as you could say that of the two young lovers, and they were happy together. Aang had begun to really come into his own as the Avatar, as more than just a fighter. He was getting plenty of experience with politics and diplomacy, whether he liked it or not, and furthermore he had learned much in teaching the Air Acolytes.

He was also really hitting his growth spurt, now, and seemed to shoot up another inch or two every other week. He was starting to fill out, as well, a little bit, the continuous practice of the various bending disciplines doing a great deal to hone his body. His voice was cracking more often, too, and puberty was really beginning to have its way with him. Much to the amusement of Sokka in particular, it seemed that even the Avatar was not immune to the awkwardness of the early teenage years.

Katara had also begun to really fill out, at a tiny bit past the age of sixteen, and her brother and boyfriend had their hands full at times just keeping away the various admirers she had acquired in her travels. She was the darling of their tribe, to be certain, and also a veritable icon upon the world stage. Though she was young, she displayed considerable leadership skills, and she eagerly studied anything she could learn.

Much like her brother, Katara was a very intelligent soul. Somewhat ironically, though, she took herself very seriously, unlike her brother. It was a bit of a role-swap from how things had been back when it all began, when they found Aang, but Sokka was the one of them more likely to care about having fun, while Katara was often very dour and serious. She did not goof around – though she certainly still managed to enjoy herself plenty, when she was with her boyfriend.

Both Aang and Katara spent a lot of time in Yu Dao, working to create an example for the liberated, independent colonies. The Air Acolytes had finally come to really _respect_ Katara as Aang's girlfriend, after they had been changed from a fanclub to... something else entirely. Aang put a lot of his hopes in reviving the culture of his people on these followers of his, and they were certainly eager to learn from him. _  
_

It gave the young Avatar hope, in a way, to see that there were yet people in this world who could appreciate the principles of the Air Nomads, their philosophies and beliefs and pacifistic way of live. It gave him hope for a peaceful world, one in which the nations could once more exist in harmony. People were weary of war, and it was up to him to show the world how to exist in times of peace.

It was a heavy burden, but Aang accepted it gladly, knowing that there was none better suited to this task than himself. And Katara was there the entire time, standing by his side, supporting him as his girlfriend even as she represented also on the international stage the interests of the Water Tribes, and the dreams of the colonies.

Zuko had also come a long way in making himself into a Fire Lord of which he believed his people could be proud. It was by no means an easy journey, and he had come close, more than once, to repeating the mistakes of his predecessors, or making his own mistakes. He did not have any sort of natural talent for leadership, aside from a certain intransigence of spirit that made him all but immovable once he had set his mind on something, but he did not let that stop him from _trying_ , again and again.

He made many mistakes, and there had been many doubts as to both the fullness of his abilities and soundness of his faculties, but he persevered. He was nothing if not stubborn, and when he was doing his best to learn from his mistakes, it was simply _remarkable_ how far he could go. He was no prodigy or genius, but he was a hard worker, and he had a good heart. He had good friends, too, in Aang and Sokka and the others, and they never failed to come through for him when he really needed it.

Like when he had gone searching for his mother, some time after the incident in Yu Dao. It had been a trying journey for all of them, and there had been no shortage of drama and doubt, but he had finally gotten something he had desperately needed: _closure_.

That his sister, Azula, had also begun to finally come to terms with her inner demons, and truly begin the long and arduous process of healing from all of the damage which had been inflicted upon her psyche over the course of her life, also gave Zuko no small amount of hope. She was a long way from being truly HEALED, yet, but she was making progress, and that was the important part.

_"Do not fear going slowly, but fear only not moving at all."_

That was what Uncle had told him, once. It had been about his firebending training, of course, back when he was still obsessed with restoring his honor, and had been dissatisfied with what he had perceived as the all too slowly growth of his skills. But it could still apply here.

It applied to a lot of things, really.

As for Mai, well, she and Zuko had grown apart for a time, and she had gone off to make her own way, for a while. She had gone on something of a journey of introspection, had forced herself to face her parents and the sins of her own family, and she had come to appreciate somewhat more the bonds which tied people together. She was not certain if she would ever be able to reconcile with her mother and father, but she had saved her baby brother, at least, put him with someone who truly cared, and would not try to turn him into a weapon or a tool.

It was scary, how hurt and betrayed she had felt, upon realizing what her parents planned, and what sort of people they were tied up with. She had never before really cared what they had done. They'd always done their best to ignore her, pretend she was just a part of the scenery, and she had... well, not _gladly_ , perhaps, but she had certainly reciprocated the gesture.

But then there was everything that happened with Zuko, and the New Ozai Society, and Mai was forced to reevaluate many things in her life. She came to an understanding of much, and she now possessed a greater appreciation for the people around her, the people she _cared_ _about_.

People like Zuko, and Ty Lee. Even her little brother, Tom-Tom, and – heavens forbid – _Azula_. She was far from a sugary, gushing love freak, but Mai now had really come to terms with her feelings for her friends, and her family, and Zuko. She did not show it as clearly as some might have, but when Zuko came back to her, _begged_ her to give him a second chance, Mai happily accepted.

Though her dry, sarcastic wit had not dulled in the slightest, she nonetheless smiled just a little bit more readily, these days.

Then there were Sokka, and Suki, and Toph.

Sokka, now seventeen, had finally started really _filling out_ , in terms of muscle. He was not thick or bulky, perhaps, but it was still noticeable. His shoulders were a little broader, now, his arms more visibly powerful. His hands and feet no longer looked awkward or overlarge, on their respective limbs, which were laden with the lean, corded, powerful and wiry muscle of a Water Tribe brave, and his face was a little squarer, now, sharper more angular, having lost the last of any lingering childish roundness.

His hair he still wore in a warrior's wolf-tail, though he did not shave the sides of his head the way he used to. Suki had expressed, reluctantly, a preference for the look of a full head of hair, and he had naturally thus gravitated in this direction. His chin might have shown a bit of stubble, depending on the day of the week, but he was generally clean-shaven, since he had not yet reached the point where his facial follicles could support a full goatee or mustache. His eyes were also as bright blue as ever, though they seemed a bit deeper, now, a bit cooler and wiser with the passage of time.

Sokka was an apprentice of the Order of the White Lotus, now, no longer merely an initiate. He had learned much, grown much, under the tutelage of Piandao, and Pakku, and other masters like them, and he come to really realize some of his real potential as a leader, and a scholar. His preference was for subjects more physical, of course, more tangible and mechanical and reproducible, but that was not to say that he was over specialized.

No, he had become a veritable renaissance man, dabbling in just about everything, and learning everything he could about the world in which they all lived. He was not as much of a bookworm or study bug as his sister, Katara, but Sokka had still come to love knowledge, and had learned to delight in learning simply for learning's sake. Even if he preferred to learn things more practical than his sister did, stuff like knot-tying and boat-making and sword-fighting and navigating. He had grown greatly as a warrior and a hunter and a leader of men, and as many other things as well – remarkably so, for one so young as himself.

He had also begun to come to terms with the fact that, somehow, he seemed to be adored almost more universally than even _Aang_ was. People expected great things from him, possessed frighteningly high expectations of him, and it was a daunting task just to keep from letting them all down. He had to push himself hard just to meet even the slightest fraction of the larger than life image people had of him.

I mean, slush, he even had a _fanclub!_ And those girls had been some of the scariest people he had ever met, with how _obsessed_ they'd been with him. Sokka did his best to repress his memories of the _fanfiction_ they had written about him... and the fan art... oh _Yue,_ the fan art...

Shudder.

He still got love letters, now and then.

But Suki. Toph and Suki.

Now, _those_ two.

 _That_ was something interesting. Because, regardless of his engagement to Toph, his and Suki's relationship had not degraded even so much as _one iota_. On the contrary, it had only intensified, growing stronger and more passionate than ever. They loved one another dearly, and spent time "together" as often as they were able.

He and Suki weren't the only ones, though. Toph had also grown very close to both of them, with the passage of time, and the fact that she was really starting to blossom into a _beautiful_ young woman had done a LOT to help Sokka finally realize that maybe he would honestly be HAPPY to marry her. If nothing else, he was closer than ever with the young earthbender, and their relationship was certainly different from how it used to be. They were not outright _lovers_ , perhaps, but there was definitely a considerable romantic aspect to their partnership.

It was complicated. Toph had been spending a lot of time in Yu Dao, over the past year, teaching students at the Bei Fong Metalbending Academy, and Sokka had also had his own obligations. They'd come together and met back up plenty of times, of course, but he always found himself missing the girl's company more and more every time they parted.

Not just as a friend, either. Both of them were all too aware of their engagement, and while Toph might have been secretly happy with it, Sokka had still seen it mostly as an obligation, for the first few months after they'd learned of it.

But things changed. Sokka, with every passing week, every new reunion with his best female buddy, became more and more aware of the fact that Toph _was_ female. And a surprisingly _cute_ one, at that. As a girl, she of course hit her growth spurt earlier than Aang, and as the Blind Bandit slowly but surely matured into a surprisingly lovely young lass, Sokka was finally unable to deny the fact that, somehow, someway, he had developed a certain brand of _feelings_ for the girl.

And he gradually became aware that she, too, possessed a certain sort of _feelings_ for HIM.

Love. They were not sure if what they was quite THAT, yet, but it was definitely _something_. They liked each other, romantically, and were quite fond of spend time in one another's company. And Suki was not left out, either.

Because, somehow, it seemed that Sokka was not the only one who had a thing for the beautiful, intelligent, strong, and _brave_ commander of the Kyoshi Warriors. Toph, too, was very fond of the older girl, and intimate with her, too, in a way. It was chiefly an _emotional_ intimacy, perhaps, but that was not to say that there wasn't necessarily anything _physical_ there.

At the very least, Sokka knew that Suki would not be averse to something like that. Her... ahem... " _mentoring_ " of Ty Lee certainly left plenty enough proof for such inclinations, as well as her own... erm... " _tutelage_ " under Tae.

(And that had been easily one of the most absolute _interesting_ nights of Sokka's life, beyond any shadow of a doubt)

So, in short, all three of them had a great love and affection for each other, and though they each had their own obligations and duties to their people and the world, they would not let ANYTHING tear them apart. And they endured many trials, and underwent many adventures, in the intervening twenty months between the announcement of the engagement and the day of the wedding.

But it came at last, and all of their friends, all of their family were there, on Kyoshi Island, for the marriage of Toph Bei Fong and Sokka the Brave. And though it was ostensibly a wedding of those two, everyone knew that it was as much for Suki, as well.

Because they were a _trio_ , and nothing would change that.

Now, I will not bore you with the details of the wedding – of either all of the guests who were present (and the number was indeed great almost well beyond counting), or the specifics of the ceremony, or the celebrations thereupon. Needless to say, there was much congratulating and shaking of hands, and much weeping and laughter and singing and dancing. Food and drink were abundant, enough for every guest to have generous second, third, fourth, and fifth helpings of _everything_ , with still yet plenty left over.

There was much drinking and feasting, and jubilation at every level. Even the wedding of the Avatar and the daughter of the Southern Water Tribe's chief, which would not come for some five or six years, yet, would only be able to _match_ , and not surpass, the level of splendor and festivity which surrounded the marriage of Toph and Sokka (and Suki, in spirit).

It was, in a word: _perfect_ , in every way, shape, and form. The wedding was everything they could ever dream of, everything they could have ever hoped for. It was, in a way, the greatest day of their young lives, at _least_ matching even the day they ended the Hundred Year War. They would not have traded this day for anything.

So, yes, the wedding was beautiful.

And the wedding _night?_

Well.

I'll leave THAT up to your imaginations.

If you know what I mean~ ❤

* ~ T H E ~x~ E N D ~ *


End file.
